Wrong Place, Wrong Time
by IloveEOness
Summary: Post Underbelly...What if Olivia had been at the bar that night? How would their relationship change?
1. Chapter 1

Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Post Underbelly...What if Olivia had been at the bar that night? How would their relationship change?

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own anything involved with SVU. If I did, Elliot wouldn't have kissed Dani!

It was 6:30 am when Olivia's alarm clock went off, rustling her away from her deep sleep. "Arrgghhh"

Olivia moaned as she rolled over to hit snooze.

'Why did I decide again that I would tell everyone that I was ready to come back today, and at such an early time?' she thought to herself. 'No one actually knows I'm coming back to the 1-6, maybe I could just sleep a little while longer, and then go in, hell, maybe I should just wait until tomorrow to go back'.

Her emotions were killing her. This was so uncharacteristic of her. Normally she would have jumped at the opportunity to return to work, and get right back in the middle of things, but not this time. She had been back from Oregon for a couple of days now, and the only person that even knew that she was back was Casey. Casey was also the only person that knew about Olivia waking up in the hospital mumbling for Elliot. After a long girl talk with Casey, and a couple of beers, Olivia had broken the news to her.

XXX Flashback XXX

"God, I'm so glad you're back Liv" Casey blurted out after taking a long drink of her ice cold beer.

It was later that night after Olivia had testified in court and Casey had invited her back to her apartment to catch up with her best friend. The two were curled up on the couch, catching up on everything that had been missed during Olivia's absence.

"I know, I am definitely not the roughing it type, I mean Oregon is beautiful and so pure and untouched, but days without a shower are not my idea of a good time" Olivia laughed, remembering all of the times she had traveled with her group, to protest a good cause, and had been unable to enjoy a hot shower for days at a time. Her face then shifted into a more serious stare. She traced the rim of her beer with her finger, lost in thought. After a minute, Casey interrupted her thoughts.

"Liv, you ok?"

"Oh, yeah, just thinking about how so much has changed while I've been gone, hell, I've changed"

With a puzzled look, Casey pulled her legs up onto the couch, now facing Olivia directly

"How so?"

"I don't know, I mean, I just, I..." she let out an exasperated sigh, "I just did a lot of finding myself while I was gone. There were hours at a time where I had nothing to do but sit and think, about you, about Munch and Fin, and Cragen, about SVU, about..." she trailed off and after a brief pause, Casey tentatively broke the silence.

"About Elliot?"

"Yeah, him" Olivia said with a bit of uncertainty in her voice, and a sigh. Casey took another drink and continued to stare at Olivia, urging her to go on. After a couple of minutes of uneasy silence, Olivia set her drink down on the coffee table and snuggled back against the other side of the couch, taking in a deep breath, preparing to release everything she had been holding inside her since she had left.

"I mean, when I left, I was so pissed at him. At that point I didn't care if I ever saw him again. What gives him the right to accuse me of not doing my job well enough? Anyways, after about a week of being gone, I started to feel differently. I started to wonder what he was doing, if he had a new partner yet, if", she paused, "if he missed me. And then I stared to think about all the what if's we'd been through. What if Gitano had shot him? What if he was still married to Kathy? What if I hadn't left? What if something happens to him while I'm gone and I never get the chance to say 'I'm sorry'? I would have never forgiven myself if anything had happened. I don't think I would have been able to live with the guilt of never knowing if he was still mad at me."

"But, you're home now, and nothing happened to him while you were gone. He's still the same old ass-hole Elliot we all love and hate at the same time"

"Yeah I know, but there's more,"she paused, contemplating if she really wanted to go on, but it was now or never, "It was at that point that I really started to miss him, I wanted to come home and make everything ok again. I wanted to see him, to touch him, to laugh with him again, but not as his partner or his best friend. Case, I think I'm in love with him."

Casey was thankful that she had not just taken a drink, because otherwise she would have spit it out all over the place in surprise.

"What?" she gasped, "You're in love with Elliot? Elliot Stabler, Elliot? Your partner, Elliot?" She stopped for a minute, taking it all in, almost thinking that Olivia would then inform her that she was just shitting her, and then they would laugh, but that never happened. "Wow, you really have changed! Not that it's a bad thing, I'm just surprised, but really happy for you"

"I know, it just happened. I think I've loved him for a long time, but I've just never admitted it to myself until now. Hell, I woke up in the hospital mumbling his name. I was having some dream about being able to hold him, and it just came out."

"Have you talked to him yet?"

"No, I haven't gotten up the courage. He doesn't even know that I'm home. No one does but you. I don't know what to say to him, and I don't know if I can look at him without him knowing that something's up, so I have to be ready to talk to him as soon as I go back to work."

"Oh my gosh" Casey giggled.

"What?"

"Nothing, its just, wow, I never thought you two would actually see what everyone else does, and now, 8 years later, it's happened!"

"How could everyone else possibly see it, when it hasn't even happened yet, or might never happen?"

"Trust me, we just know."

Casey and Olivia continued to catch up on everything that had happened while Olivia was gone and after a few hours, Olivia had gone home.

XXX End Flashback XXX

That had been three days ago. Casey had promised to keep Olivia's return a secret from everyone, and although she almost slipped a couple of times, no one else knew she was back.

'Its now or never' Olivia thought as she slid out of bed, her feet hitting the cold hardwood floor. Every day for the past three days, she had set her alarm clock, and planned on going in to work. Every day for the past three days, she had chickened out, coming up with some pointless excuse as to why she shouldn't go in that day. First it was that she had ran out of conditioner in the shower, and couldn't go into work without properly conditioning her hair, then it was that her favorite t-shirt was dirty and she could only wear that one shirt to work that day, finally it was that it was just too cold and cloudy out for her to leave her apartment. Olivia laughed at herself for coming up with such useless excuses that were about as far from her normal personality as possible. Again today, she figured that she could come up with some other excuse for not going in and instead lay around watching TV, go for a jog, and maybe take a bubble bath, but enough was enough. It was time to be Olivia, the take no shit, hard ass cop, and stop hiding out because she might, no, not might, definitely has feelings for Elliot.

Olivia hopped in the shower, and relaxed under the warm spray. She let her mind wander off to Elliot again. 'Does he look any different? I wonder if he's wearing that blue shirt that I really like on him?' She then began to fantasize about what was under the shirt. Sure, she'd seen him shirtless before, a couple of times after they'd been in the gym working out, but then it was just her partner, now it was different. She thought back to his rock hard six-pack, and how chiseled his entire body was. She thought about his lightly tanned skin glistening from the sweat, and suddenly she longed to run her fingers down his chest and stomach. She shuddered with intense desire for him, hoping that if she imagined it long enough, it would actually come true. Her fantasy was ended abruptly as the water in the shower became cold.

"Damn" she muttered out loud. She stepped out of the shower and wrapped herself in a tan fluffy towel, enveloping its warmth. After blow drying her hair, and applying her makeup, she threw on her favorite pair of jeans, low rise boot cut, which fit tightly in all the right places, and her favorite black t-shirt, with the low neckline, and headed out the door.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Still don't own any of them, maybe I should add them to my Christmas Wish List!

20 minutes later, after enough traffic to give anyone a migraine, and more than enough chances to change her mind, she found herself in front of the 1-6, and with a couple of deep breaths to relax herself, she pulled herself out of the car, mindful to lock the doors, and headed up the stairs into the bullpen. Nervously, she scanned the room, looking for any familiar faces, when her eyes rested on someone sitting at her old desk. Curious as to who the woman was, she approached the woman, who glanced up as she walked over.

"Can I help you?" she said in a curt, rude tone.

"I'm looking for Detective Stabler" Olivia bit back. No one was going to be a bitch to her, especially when that person was sitting at her desk.

"He's in an interrogation right now, maybe I can help you, I'm his partner, Dani Beck."

His partner, Elliot's partner, Olivia started to feel sick to her stomach. That woman wasn't Elliot's partner, she was. The two of them had shared the same desks, split paperwork, took turns going for coffee, and had more than enough gruesome cases to last a lifetime. She had been his partner for the past 8 years, that doesn't just up and change, does it? Olivia was unsure of what to think, but quickly realized that she was still standing in front of Dani, and had yet to answer her.

"Um, no, I don't think so, is the captain in?"

"Yeah, he should be in his office."

"Thanks."

Olivia headed over to the office and with a soft knock on the door, entered the room.

She was greeted by her captain's surprised, but loving face.

"Olivia, I didn't know you were home. When did you get back?"

"I've been back for a couple of days now, Casey is the only one who knew I was back."

After a brief pause, she asked, "So how's that going anyway", referring to Dani and Elliot's partnership.

"It was rough at first, but they're doing pretty good now." She glanced out the window in the office, spying Elliot walk into the room. Her stomach lurched with excitement as she took in his same blue eyes, and tan skin, the same features that she had longed for while she was gone. Her moment of happiness, crumbled to the floor in a matter of seconds as she watched in disgust as Elliot walked up and rubbed Dani's shoulder while he leaned over her, discussing a case.

"I didn't know you were coming back, so I don't really have any room right now for you, the other precinct sent someone over to fill in for you," Don replied, breaking the uneasy silence.

"Yeah, I understand" she said with a twinge of hurt in her voice. She didn't understand. She couldn't understand. Had she been replaced? Was there something that her captain wasn't telling her? Why the hell was Elliot touching that bitch?

"Oh…I…uh…actually came to tell you that I needed some more time before I come back," she lied, directly to her captain, trying to hide the tears that threatened to spill out of her round brown eyes, "I'll see you soon." With that she turned on her heel and headed for the door, longing for the safety of her car, the safety she desperately needed to reach before her emotions bled all over the floor.

"Are you going to leave without saying hello to Elliot?"

"Yeah, he's busy, I'll catch up with him later," she paused, "and don't tell him I was here, ok?"

With that she left, heartbroken, defeated, more miserable than she had been in Oregon. She was able to make it to her car before the dam that was holding her tears back broke. She put her head on the steering wheel and sobbed. Her eyes stung as the warm tears rolled down both sides of her face. "Why, why, why" she mumbled to herself in between sobs. He wasn't supposed to like his new partner. He certainly wasn't supposed to rub her shoulder. He was supposed to be heartbroken and lonely, unable to fully function without her. After about 5 minutes of letting out all the heartbreak she could experience at one time, she was drained, emotionally and physically. She sniffled, and wiped her tears off her face in an attempt to pull herself together. Feeling a little more in control of her emotions, she put her car in drive and made her way back to her apartment.

She slammed and locked the door to her apartment a little harder than usual, and headed for the security of her bed. She toed off her shoes and allowed herself to sink into the warm, fluffy bedding, hoping that sleep would fix her problems, fix her partner, fix her heartbreak. After spending all afternoon tossing and turning, unable to ever actually take a nap, she got up and began running the hot water for a relaxing soak in a hot bubble bath. She eased into the water, allowing her skin to acclimate to the temperature, and scooped up a handful of bubbles, gently blowing them off her skin and watching them pop. 'Pop', Olivia thought, 'exactly what Elliot did to my feelings. Wait, why am I being so damn emotional? Because I love him, damn it.' With that, the tears flowed freely again. Olivia curled her legs up to her chest and allowed her tears to fall into the warm bubbly water below. After a while, the tears became trickles, then sniffles, then stopped altogether. Olivia decided that she badly needed a drink. If sleeping and a bubble bath hadn't worked, maybe she could drown the sorrow in something intoxicating. She got out of the bathtub, reapplied her makeup, hoping to cover up the puffiness under her eyes from crying earlier, ensured that her service weapon was secured in her holster, and headed toward her favorite bar. It was only a couple of blocks from her house, so she decided that a walk would be nice in hopes to clear her head. The air outside was crisp, and the sky was cloudless, reminiscent of a picturesque November evening.

As she came into the parking lot of the bar, she could have sworn that she heard Elliot talking to someone, but who did the other voice belong to? She crouched down behind a bush, hidden by the darkness, and watched Elliot walk to his car. 'Great,' she thought, 'first I'm an emotional wreck over him, now I'm hiding in bushes, spying on him; maybe the water I drank in Oregon was bad or something' Just then, she saw who the other voice belonged to, Dani, that partner stealing bitch from earlier. The sudden pang of hurt and jealousy instantly washed over her as she continued to watch in horror from her hiding place as Elliot leaned in and kissed her, not once, not twice, but three times. Olivia's eyes filled with tears as she watched the man she loved kiss another woman. Why did he bring her there anyway? That was their bar, where they always got a drink after work. She balled up her fists in an attempt to keep from jumping out of the bush and ambushing (no pun intended) them. A string of silently thought expletives and a few deep breaths later, she was as composed as could be expected in that situation, and stayed where she was, observing every fantasy and dream she had conjured up during her absence crash and burn. After the third time they kissed, Elliot's phone rang, and the two pulled back from each other so Elliot could answer the call. It was Cragen telling them to get back to the precinct. Elliot and Dani reluctantly climbed into Elliot's SUV and drove out of the parking lot. After the SUV's taillights had disappeared around the corner, Olivia let out a gasp that she had been holding for who knew how long. A few stray tears stung her eyes, and escaped rolling down her cheeks. 'No,' she thought, quickly pulling herself together, 'this is no time to be emotional, this is a time to be pissed off. I actually thought I loved that fucking ass-hole, obviously, he fucking doesn't give a shit about me!' With that, Olivia got up from behind the bush, brushed off her jeans, and headed into the bar to wash away any and every emotion she was feeling.

Inside the bar, it was warm and fairly crowded, as various groups of people sat talking at the bar, or in booths around the perimeter of the room. She grabbed a table in the corner and slumped down into the cushion covered booth, relaxing into its comfort. She summoned the waiter over to her table, but before he was able to make it over there, a man slid into the booth across from her.

"Hey, can I buy you a drink?"

"Uhh, well, actually...," Olivia stuttered, attempting to come up with any excuse why the sexy man, with the gorgeous smile sitting across from her couldn't buy her a drink. She felt like she was cheating on the man she loved, when scenes from earlier in the parking lot, resurfaced in her mind, "hell, why not." He ordered them two drinks and the waiter left to go fill the order. She took a minute to take him in. He was about 6'2", brown hair, and green eyes. He was tan, buff, and could have been on the cover of any magazine. 'Not bad, Not bad at all,'she thought.

"By the way, I'm Olivia, and you are..."

"The hottest guy you've ever seen," the guy said, flashing that million dollar smile again, "no, I'm Ryan. So Olivia, what's a beautiful woman like yourself doing out in a bar by herself?"

"You know, just been one of those days."

"Yeah, I know," he said, raising the drink the waiter just brought into the air, "so, here's to shitty days, but much better evenings."

Olivia let out a smile, "here, here!"

The twosome continued talking for almost two hours, consuming more and more alcohol as the night went on. After the tab was paid, Olivia stumbled outside onto the sidewalk, laughing at absolutely nothing, followed closely by an only slightly tipsy Ryan.

"So, you wanna come back to my place?"

Olivia hesitated, unsure of what to do. She had definitely had her share of going back to guy's places that she had just met, but again, that twinge of loyalty to Elliot tugged at her. Shrugging it off, she decided it was better to be with someone that wanted her, than sit at home thinking about someone that didn't.

"Yeah, lets go."

Ryan unlocked and opened the passenger side door to his Honda, and helped Olivia in before going around to the drivers side, climbing in, and pulling away into the darkness.


	3. Chapter 3

1Disclaimer: Stop asking, I still don't own them. Its quite upsetting though.

I'm leaving for Thanksgiving, so I'm leaving you all with this little cliffhanger until I return next week. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and enjoy the fact that tonight's episode is Dani's last!!!!!!

After driving for about 15 minutes, and passing only minimal traffic, they pulled up to a street with several apartment buildings on it. The street itself was dark, and various pieces of trash littered the sidewalk. By all means, it was not the Hilton. Ryan parked the car, and extended his hand out to Olivia to help her out. Still very drunk, Olivia clung to Ryan for support as the pair walked down the block a ways until they reached one of the buildings. They walked down the dimly lit hallway and stopped at the last apartment door on the left. Ryan unlocked the door and pushed the brown painted door open.

Inside Ryan's apartment, Olivia surveyed the room, as best she could through her blurred vision. It was small, fairly empty, and had a musty, old smell to it. There was a kitchen, living area, and a small hallway with two doors coming off of it. Olivia assumed they went to the bedroom and bathroom. An old 70's plaid couch sat facing the TV, and an end table with a lamp completed the look. 'Definitely could use some help from Extreme Home Makeover or something,' Olivia thought as she massaged her throbbing forehead.

"Here, drink this." Ryan handed Olivia a glass with what looked like juice in it, "You're really drunk, and it will help with the hangover tomorrow."

Wanting to do anything to avoid a major hangover, Olivia took the glass from him and drank its contents.

Within minutes, began to feel sleepy. She felt as if her head was floating, and standing became a major feat. Olivia wandered over to the couch and lied down, giving in to the dizzy feeling. She was knocked out cold.

"That was too easy," Ryan stated, out loud knowing that Olivia wouldn't be waking up any time soon, "now, lets see what our pretty little woman looks like under her clothes."

Ryan proceeded in almost a ceremonial fashion, slowly and deliberately, to take off Olivia's jacket, when his hand ran across something on her hip, her service revolver. "A cop?" He looked through her pockets, where he came across her badge. "Special Victims Unit, sex crimes?!? Ahhh, this is too good, out of all the women I could have picked, I picked a sex crimes cop! The sex crimes cop is going to become a sex crimes victim, that's so ironic" He let out a loud laugh, completely amused with himself, as he sang a couple of lines from Alanis Morrisette's Ironic. "Isn't it ironic, don't you think?" he continued to hum the song, as he carefully removed her shirt, revealing her black lacy bra, and flat stomach. Slowly, he ran his fingers over her soft skin, receiving pleasure from the slightest touch of her. He traced his finger around her belly button, and up to where her bra intimately hid her from view. Ryan slid his hand underneath Olivia and with one swift motion, unsnapped and removed her bra. Her nipples peaked, hard from the coolness in the room. He allowed his tongue to trace each nipple, as well as her neck and down her stomach. Olivia's skin glistened from the wetness of Ryan's mouth. Fully satisfied with the foreplay and ready to move on to better things, Ryan lifted her legs up, and slid her pants and black panties off in one fluid act. Overcome with the beauty of her body, he pushed all of himself deep into her, repeating the motion over and over with Olivia's limp body. Only a few minutes passed, and he was finished with her. He placed all of her articles of clothing in a black trash bag, and took it out to the dumpster, disposing of everything she had on her. He knew that she wouldn't need it soon anyways. He walked back inside his apartment, and grabbed the still unconscious Olivia by the hair, and drug her through his bedroom into a small secret room, off of his closet.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: They're at the top of my Christmas list, and there's still 28 days of shopping left for Dick Wolf to get them for me! Oh and if you're having trouble with uploading as I was, transferring your story to notepad and then uploading is working for now!! (thank you to LivNel4ever for that helpful hint) 

The next morning, Olivia woke to find herself lying on a cold cement floor, completely naked, chained to the floor in a room without any windows, and only one door. Metal shackles bound her wrists together, and another set bound her feet together. The shackles were then attached to a chain that was attached into the cement floor.

"What the hell?" Olivia furrowed her brow, trying to remember what had happened the night before; why she had such a bad headache, and why she was chained to a wall. Suddenly, it all rushed over her. Ryan. There must have been something in that drink he gave me. 'Oh god, did he rape me?' She assumed so because she was naked, but at the moment, that was the least of her worries. She tugged on the shackles in an attempt to get free, but they were locked tightly around each of her limbs. Pulling the chain out of the wall was not an option either, as it was securely bolted into the cement. Still feeling weak from the evening before, Olivia decided to save her energy in hopes of coming up with a better escape plan later. She rested her head on the concrete and closed her eyes, willing herself to think about anything other than the tomblike room she was trapped in. About that time, the door to the room creaked open and in came Ryan. Fear rushed over Olivia as her heartbeat sped up, and her palms became sweaty. This man, this sexy magazine man, was now her captor and her potential rapist.

"Good morning Detective Benson"

'oh fuck, he knows, he knows where I work'

"Did you sleep well Olivia"

"What the hell do you want with me?" Olivia attempted to put on a front of not being phased by her current situation.

"You didn't answer my question, and what gives you the right to ask me questions, learn your place, Detective" with a swift movement, he slapped the backside of his hand across her face, followed by a punch to her nose. Olivia winced in pain as blood started to trickle down her face and onto her naked body. Her nose was definitely broken.

"Now, as I was saying, did you sleep well"  
Olivia was now pissed as anything, and wasn't about to give in to Ryan's condescending words. She sat there silently, staring at the grey cement floor, braced for whatever punishment Ryan would give her for not responding.

"Ah, so we're going to play the silent game, are we? Well let's see how quiet you can be when you're in so much pain you can barely breathe. You'll be begging me to stop." Olivia closed her eyes as Ryan proceeded to hit her repeatedly in the ribs, stomach, and head with a wooden board that he referred to as the punishment stick.

"Owwh" Olivia let out a whimper under her breath. The pain was excrutiating, and she almost hoped that one of the blows would kill her to put her out of her misery.

"Are you done yet Olivia? Are you gonna answer me or are you gonna continue to be a little bitch?" Ryan continued to hit her harder. "Come on you little bitch, talk to me, play with me." Ryan licked his lips as he approached her. He grabbed her face in his hand and forced her to look at him. He closed his eyes and allowed his lips to caress hers. Olivia bit down with all her force on his lip, and he pulled away, touching it gingerly, tasting blood. "You little hor," he screamed as he picked up the stick again. He struck her harder as his anger continued to build. Eventually, one of the strikes, made contact with her head and knocked her out, and Olivia's body slumped limply on the floor. Ryan looked at her limp body, bruised, broken, and lying in a pool of her own blood, and with a sense of accomplishment, kicked her once in the side, and walked out of the room.

Hours, or days later, she wasn't sure, Olivia woke up. Her head pounded from the previous blows, and her vision was blurry. She attempted to sit up, but was unable to move her lower body due to the extreme pain that was shooting up her legs. She was positive that they were broken. 'God, I've got to get out of here. I'm not ready to die, at least not like this, alone, cold, in pain. I wish Elliot were here. He would know what to do, he would make it hurt less,' Olivia thought as a few stray tears escaped her eyes and began down her cheeks. It hurt too much to wipe them away, so she just let them fall. The door opened again, and in walked Ryan, carrying the punishment stick.

"Ahh, still alive I see. Don't worry Olivia, it won't be much longer until you're dead. I just have to find someone new to play with first, but while we're waiting, we might as well have some fun, huh?" Ryan walked over the corner where Olivia was chained up, and bent down to kiss her lips. She turned her head, avoiding his kiss, knowing that her actions would be punished. At this point, she didn't care what he did to her, just as long as it wasn't sexual. She could take the physical pain, but the sexual acts were unbearable. Just as she had predicted, Ryan became infuriated at her actions, and grabbed the stick raising it above his head, and bringing it down sharply on her abdomen.

"God," Olivia whispered in response to the intense pain.

"I thought we already had this little talk. You should really learn your place, and stop being such a stubborn bitch." The blows continued, harder and harder, ripping her skin, and bruising her body.

"STOP, please stop," Olivia screamed, "I can't take it any longer. Just let me die, please." Pleased with her remorse, Ryan stopped hitting her, and turned on his heel and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Olivia slumped down onto the floor, and closed her eyes, trying to think of anything besides the terrible pain she was experiencing. She thought about all the times in the past couple of years that she and Elliot had gotten Chinese take out, and had brought it back to his apartment. They would laugh about nothing, and watch tv for hours, before she would eventually go home. He was her best friend, and she was his, or at least used to be. Now she wasn't so sure. Olivia eventually drifted off, and sleep consumed her.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Dick Wolf still owns them, but I thank him for that wonderful little elevator scene last night...Elliot-"I'd give you a kidney" Olivia-"Not if I give you mine first" They might as well have said I love you!!!! Amazing!!!!

Casey walked into the precinct, searching for Elliot or Olivia. She hadn't talked to Olivia since the other day when Olivia had called her to let her know that she had actually gotten the courage to go to the precinct to talk to Elliot and was about to head inside. The conversation had ended with 'wish me luck', and Olivia had hung up.

Now, three days later, Casey was still unsure of the outcome. She had tried calling Olivia, and even went over to her apartment get the scoop, but had been unable to reach her. She figured they were keeping long hours hammering out a case, or with any luck, each other, and the best way to reach them would be the station. With a quick scan of the room, she didn't see Olivia anywhere, but spotted Elliot over by his desk, pondering over a file, rubbing his creased brow, deep in thought. She headed over to Elliot, eager to find out how the conversation she thought Olivia had with him, had gone.

"So, how's everything going?" Casey asked with a bit of mischievousness in her voice.

"Good,…did you need something Case?"

"Not really, how's the whole partner situation working out?" she said with a gleam in her eye.

"Dani's working out alright, we work well together."

Casey's brow creased as she processed what he had just said. "You mean you're still working with Dani, even now?"

" Well, yeah," Elliot said, furrowing his brow, "why wouldn't I be?"

" What about Liv? You're not going to work with her again?"

" I don't know, Casey, I'd like to, but after she left and all, I don't know how she'd feel about working with me again. Hell, I don't know if she'll even want to talk to me again. I guess we'll have to cross that bridge when she gets back, if she comes back. You never know how long those undercover things will last," Elliot said, as he looked at his desk, a sadness on his face.

"What do you mean, when or if she gets back? She is back, she came in two days ago to talk to you. She called me from outside the precinct to let me know she was on her way inside right then. She hasn't answered her phone, and she hasn't been at her apartment, so I figured she had jumped right back into the latest case," she stumbled over her words, "but you really haven't talked to her?"

" No Case, I really haven't seen her since she left. This is the first I've heard of her being back." Just then, Cragen walked through the room.

"Hey captain, did you know that Liv was back?"

" Uhh….yeah, she came in a couple of days ago."

" Did you notice anything weird or unusual about her?"

" No, I mean, she asked how everything was between you and Dani. She was watching you out the office window, and I could have sworn she had tears in her eyes. At first I thought she was going to ask to come back to work, but she said that she wasn't ready yet and that she'd talk to me later. I would have told you, but she specifically asked me not to. Why?"

" Well, no one's heard from her since. She's not answering her phone, she hasn't been here, and she's not at her apartment, but her car is," Casey said anxiously, catching Cragen, and now Munch and Fin who were standing nearby up to date.

"Shit, fucking shit. Of course she couldn't just come back to work like a normal person, she had to pull some disappearing act," Elliot yelled to no one in particular. He paused at the words that had just come out of his mouth. Suddenly, his stomach dropped, and stung with pain, with the harsh realization that she could be missing, she could be injured, or worse, dead. 'No,' he thought, 'Liv, my Liv, could be in trouble, and its all my fault. Why did I have to be so stupid? Why couldn't I keep my hormones in check and stay the hell away from Dani'

"So what do we do now? Where do we start?"

" Elliot, we don't even know that anything's wrong. Maybe she's just taking some extra time off before talking to anyone. Now, I've got some updates on the Carson case that I need you and Dani to follow up on. If Olivia comes in, I'll let you know, but until then, she's not your priority so keep it out of work, and that's an order. And that goes for you two as well, I don't want you going on some crazy Olivia conspiracy hunt," he pointed his finger at Munch and Fin.

Elliot turned, his face filled with rage at his captain, without saying anything and went in search of his temporary partner.

After Elliot, Munch and Fin were out of earshot, Don pulled Casey aside and asked her if she thought there was a reason to be alarmed. At this point, they decided that it was too soon to worry about the possibility of foul play, and Casey promised to keep Don updated if she happens to hear from Olivia. With that, he put an arm around her shoulder, "She'll be ok Casey, she's strong."

Minutes later, Dani and Elliot were in the car heading to Bellevue Hospital to interview a woman who had just woken up from a coma after being badly beaten and raped. The DNA evidence from the rape kit was able to tie her case to two other women's cases, and the now serial murderer and rapist , Blake Carson. The victim had been dumped in central park, near the site where two other beaten and raped women's bodies had been found. She was barely breathing, and unconscious when the paramedics arrived on the scene. The detectives figured that the rapist thought she was dead, so, like his previous two victims, he disposed of her body. Her injuries were substantial, but after a week, she pulled out of a coma, and everyone was hopeful of the light she could shed on Blake Carson.

Elliot and Dani remained silent throughout the drive, parked the car, and walked through the sliding doors, and up to the main reception desk, where a young nurse in blue scrubs was sitting.

"Hi, we're looking for Jamie Harps, I'm Detective Stabler and this is my partner, Detective Beck," Elliot said, as he and Dani displayed their badges for the nurse.

"Yes, hang on a second, let me see where she is," the nurse said typing on the computer, "she's in room 307."

" Thank you" Dani mumbled at the nurse's cheerfulness. Elliot and Dani walked around the corner to a bank of elevators, and stepped inside, breathing in the sterile unique smell of the hospital. The doors closed and for a second the twosome stood in silence watching the glowing number above the door change as the elevator ascended.

Dani was the first to break the silence. "What's up with you Elliot? You kiss me, you don't talk about it again, and now you act as if you're pissed off at me. If you've got something to say, then say it. I'm not your precious Olivia, I won't break."

" Ok, fine, if you want me to talk to you, then lets talk", Elliot said aggravated, pausing the elevator between floors, "I just found out that my precious Olivia ," Elliot said doing air quotes, "might be missing, she saw us in the bullpen, and Cragen said he guessed she got upset. No one's heard from her in three days now, her car's at her apartment, but she's not, and I feel like its all my fault."

" What does it matter to you? She broke your heart, and treated your friendship like shit. I thought you got over her when you fell in love with me."

Elliot laughed, throwing his head back, "I don't love you, hell, I really don't even like you. I had been drinking and my inhibitions weren't what they normally are. When I kissed you, it didn't mean anything to me. It was purely physical. There, are you happy? Happy we had this little chat?"

By the end of his Oscar winning speech, he was inches from her face, yelling at her. Now, she was yelling back.  
"Wonderful, glad you shared that sap story with me, now if you don't mind, can we get back to the case?" She slapped the button to resume the elevator moving, and pushed by Elliot to get out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Still not mine, but for those who hope for Elliot and Olivia to get together, here's what Mariska Hargitay said on NBC's blog the other night, while addressing the subject . "Listen, we are going to have to postpone that, or the show would be over. The good news is that we all want them to. I mean WE all do. I have to put my partner back on the straight and narrow. He had a wondering eye while I was gone." There you have it, straight from Mariska, and I should hope that Mariska gets what she wants!

With that, the two made their way silently down the hall, avoiding eye contact to meet with Jamie Harps.

Elliot knocked quietly on the door, before opening it and peeking inside, "Hi, I'm Detective Stabler, and this is Detective Beck, and we'd like to ask you a few questions," he said as he held out his hand to Jamie. With a small affirmative nod from Jamie, Elliot sat down in the uncomfortable brown chair that was close to the hospital bed, while Dani stood a few feet away, shifting her weight from one foot to the other.

"Tell us about what happened, anything you remember."

"I don't know, I went out about a week ago to a bar downtown, Mike's, and had a couple of drinks. I was really stressed out with work and just needed some alone time. This guy came and sat down by me, said his name was Ryan, and offered to buy me a drink. One thing led to another and I ended up back at his place. The next thing I remember is waking up here. I guess he raped me and beat me pretty badly. They said he thought I was dead, so he dumped me like the other two." Jamie stared at the blue hospital blanket on her bed, as she ran her fingers over the fabric.

"Jamie, do you remember where his place was or what kind of car he drove?"

"Sort-of, we drove for a couple of miles to a street with several apartment buildings on it. I think the complex was called Chisolm Place or something like that. I don't know, I was really drunk. His car was red and some sort of Honda, I think."

"Thank you very much. If you think of anything else that you think might help us out, give us a call."

Elliot and Dani hadn't spoken to each other the entire way back to the precinct. Once inside they both set out to find any apartment complex within a 10 mile radius of Mike's. After about 20 minutes of searching, Dani uncovered something.

"Hey, Elliot, take a look at this. There's a street with about 4 different complexes on it, and one of them is called Crimson Place."

"Great, lets get over there." Elliot grabbed his coat off the back of the chair. He filled the captain in on what they'd found, and ran out of the office, Dani right in stride.

They arrived at Crimson Place, found a parking place, and began to canvas outside the building for anything out of the ordinary, and any red vehicles. They didn't find anything, so armed with a picture of Blake Carson, aka Ryan, they went into the building, and began knocking on doors asking if anyone had seen him. The third door they knocked on, an elderly woman answered.

"I'm Detective Stabler and this is Detective Beck. We're wondering if you've ever seen this man before?" Elliot said as Dani held up the picture for the woman to look at.

"Why yes, that's Ryan. Such a sweet young man. He always helps me carry in my groceries or holds the door for me."

"Ma'am, can you tell us where Ryan lives?"

"Of course, he lives right down the hall in 108. Why? Is he in any kind of trouble?" "We're not sure yet. Thank you for your time."

Elliot and Dani went to the door, banging on it. After a minute, it was clear that no one was going to answer.

"Ok, stand back, I'm going to knock it in," Elliot stated with a rush of adrenaline. Elliot put some force against the door and pushed it open. Stepping inside, guns drawn, they quickly surveyed the room for anyone who could be hiding.

"Kitchen's Clear" Elliot yelled to Dani.

"Bathroom's Clear" Dani yelled back. After the kitchen, living room, bathroom and the bedroom were clear, Elliot went to look inside the closet in the bedroom where he found a door. He tried to open the door but it was padlocked from the outside.

"Dani, stand over there. I'm gonna shoot the lock off."

He aimed his gun at the lock and shot it off, letting it clink to the floor, and with one swift motion, opened the door. To his horror, he was faced with a naked and pale white Olivia, chained to the floor. She wasn't moving, and she lay in a pool of what he assumed to be her own blood. Her face was black and blue with bruises, and red gash lined the side of her forehead. Dried blood caked her skin, painting it in a pale red color. He could tell by the bruising on her sides, that she had several broken ribs, and as he continued to scan her body, he saw that she had multiple cuts, and what looked like two broken legs.

He rushed into the room, "Olivia, Liv, baby can you hear me?" Tears stung his eyes as he knelt down beside his best friend. He gingerly placed his hand on her neck feeling for a pulse, for anything that would let him know she was still alive; there was a weak one, she was alive, for now

"Liv, please…please, baby be ok" he pleaded, his body consumed with grief for the woman he cared more about than anyone in the world. At this point, tears flowed freely down his face, and his body shook with every sob. Dani had called the paramedics, and they were on their way, but it seemed like an eternity would pass before they got there. He lay down on the floor beside her and gently held her close, making sure not to disturb her injuries. Stroking her hair with his hand, he stared intently at her. He couldn't lose her. He couldn't live without her. He loved her.

Dani stood in the entryway of the room, with her arms folded across her chest, watching her partner, the man she loved, hold his partner, the woman he loved and be completely and emotionally exposed with her. She watched as he stroked her face, and talked to her about how much he missed her.

"Sweetie, you've got to pull through for me ok, I'm here now, I'm so sorry I wasn't here sooner. I'm so sorry. Don't leave me Liv. I love you. That's right, I love you. I've loved you for so long, but I never felt like I could tell you. Please wake up Livvy. I want to tell you. I need to tell you. I need to know that you know how I feel."

A tear trickled down Dani's face, as she watched him interact with Olivia. She felt for him, knowing what it was like to lose someone you truly love. With the severity and great emotion of the situation, neither Dani nor Elliot had thought to keep an eye out in case Blake arrived before the paramedics or Cragen, Munch, and Fin. About the time that it dawned on her that she should go watch for anyone that came into the apartment, Dani felt something cold and hard press up against her cheek, and instantly she knew, Blake was back and was holding a gun to her head.

"Elliot!" Dani shrieked out. Elliot looked up to see Dani with a gun to her face, a terrified look in her eyes.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Ahhh...the reruns have returned!!! Dick Wolf is still the mastermind behind it all.

"Elliot!" Dani shrieked out. Elliot looked up to see Dani with a gun to her face, a terrified look in her eyes.

"You. Against the wall," Blake demanded as he took Dani's gun out of its holster and threw it out the bedroom window of the apartment, breaking the glass with its force, "and you. Kick your gun over here," he motioned to Elliot's gun, "and if you try anything funny, she dies."

He continued to keep his gun trained on Dani while Elliot handed over his weapon. Blake threw it out the now broken window of his apartment, in a similar fashion as he had done Dani's. Now there were three unarmed SVU detectives, one clinging to life, held hostage in a torture room, by a serial rapist with a gun, with unknowing police and paramedics only minutes from arrival. Elliot got a feeling that this was not going to end well.

After a couple of minutes of complete tense silence, Elliot glanced from Dani to Blake to Olivia. Trying to think of anything to keep himself calm in this situation. The woman he loved was dying on the floor beside him and he and his partner were being held hostage. He had let them down. He was supposed to keep both of them safe, and he had failed miserably. The sound of sirens approached in the distance, and grew louder and louder, until they stopped outside the apartment building.

"Shit," Blake said under his breath, "I'm fucked."

Cragen, Munch, and Fin ran into the room, guns drawn, closely flanked by the paramedics. They froze at the sight before them. Three of New York's finest, on the floor, held at gunpoint by Blake.

"Get the hell out, or they all die," Blake screamed, pointing his gun at his three hostages, "NOW!"

The police and paramedics retreated outside to do the only thing they could, wait. There was obviously no talking to Blake, and opening fire on him wasn't an option for the time being. Cragen went to work setting up a command post, attempting not to think about how much longer Olivia would live, or if any of his detectives would pull through. Munch and Fin quickly evacuated all of the residents, and taped off a perimeter around the building.

"Did you see Olivia man?" Fin said with a look of worry in his eyes.

"Yeah, but its Olivia, she'll be ok. She's a fighter. They'll all be ok," Munch replied, softly, trying to convince himself of that fact more than anything.

Back inside the apartment, after nearly an hour of being held at gunpoint, Dani's anger that had been building, finally erupted. "What the fuck do you want with us anyway? You know you're never going to get away with this. We have your DNA tying you to all the other rapes and murders. The police have the building surrounded. Just give yourself up."

"Dani, don't," Elliot started to reprimand.

"You're right. You're absolutely right," Blake spoke ever so evenly and calmly, "I won't get away with this and I know that. In any other instance, I would just kill all three of you and skip town, but there are cops outside, so leaving isn't really an option. Instead, I think it would be more fun to play a little game. I find it funny that Elliot here is stuck in a hostage situation with his own love triangle," he paused, a sickening grin plastering his face, "That's right, I saw you two the other night at Mike's making out in the parking lot. That's where I found Olivia, and then I walk in here and see him confessing his love for Olivia. I think it would be fun to let Elliot choose what happens. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, I only have two bullets in my gun. I'm not going to spend the rest of my life in prison, so one of them is for me. The fun part of the game is that the other one is for either you, Dani, right? or Olivia. Elliot here has to decide who gets shot and who gets saved. So who's it going to be? Who do you love more, Dani or Olivia? And because there's only two bullets in my gun, you have my word, that you and whoever you pick will walk out of here unharmed. I'll give you 60 seconds to make up your mind. Choose carefully, my friend, because you will personally be responsible for the death of whoever you do not choose."

"He's fucking with your head. Choose Olivia, she's not going to last much longer and if she wants any chance of living, she needs to get to a hospital now. I'm ok, I'm not your precious Olivia, remember," Dani said with tears in her eyes and a small smile. "I've already lost the one I loved. You still have a chance with Olivia."

"No, so maybe we wouldn't have worked out in a relationship, but that doesn't give me the right to let him kill you," tears formed in his eyes and began to trickle down his cheeks, as he took both of Dani's hands in his own, "promise me that whatever happens, you'll take care of Olivia. Make sure she comes out of his alright, let her know I loved her with everything I had, and don't ever let her think that this is her fault. Blake, I've made my decision. Me. Kill me and let them go." Elliot sputtered out, wiping away a few remaining tears on his cheeks.

"That wasn't originally an option, but I kinda like it. Even though both of the women live through this, neither of them will be emotionally ok because they will both lose you. No one wins…I like it," Blake said with a sadistic smile.

"No, clearly, Elliot, she loves you, and you love her. Shoot me instead," Dani replied looking Blake directly in the eye, her lip quivering with fear.  
Before Elliot could answer, shots rang out.


	8. Chapter 8

Sorry everyone that it's taken me so long to update this story! Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about them, just being a graduate student with finals, and now working full time over Christmas break has taken precedence!

Disclaimer: Dick currently owns them, but I'm really wanting them for Christmas, maybe we could share them...like joint custody or something?

Blake grasp at his chest, as blood poured from the wound. He coughed, as blood filled his lungs. He fell to the ground, and went limp, as a crimson puddle began to form around him. After a last struggled breath, he was dead.  
Elliot sat in the room for a second, stunned by what had just happened, trying to piece everything together. A member of the SWAT team had been able to get a shot off through the window, and had killed Blake. After realizing that Blake was indeed dead, and he wasn't shot, he looked over to Olivia to make sure she hadn't been shot. Thankfully, she hadn't. He then turned to right, to make sure Dani was ok, but that wasn't the case. Blood seeped through her shirt around her stomach area. Her breathing was shallow and raspy, and her skin was void of all color.

"Shit," Blake must have gotten a shot off, Elliot thought.

"Dani," Elliot said as he pressed his hands against her stomach to try to stop the bleeding, "Don't you die on me. Don't let him win."

The paramedics rushed into with two separate stretchers, while Cragen pulled a struggling and fighting Elliot out of the apartment to give the paramedics room to work. He was quickly met by Munch and Fin, who greeted him at the entrance of the apartment building with hugs.

"Glad you're ok, man," Fin said.

"God," Elliot gasped out, running his fingers through his hair, shrugging Fin away, "how did I let this happen? My two partners could die. I tried to get him to kill me instead, and now I'm the only one who's not hurt or dead." He began to pace back and forth on the lawn, waiting for any sign or word of their conditions.

He looked up at the door as the paramedics emerged pushing Dani on a stretcher. She was attached to a breathing machine and had several IVs stuck in her. Her skin was pale, and gauze wrapped her middle section. Followed closely behind, were the rest of the paramedics, pushing a stretcher with Olivia on it. Her eyes were closed, and like Dani she was attached to a breathing machine and several IVs and tubes. A brace engulfed her neck, forbidding any movement. In the sunlight, her black bruises really showed up, contrasting against her ghostly white skin, and Elliot gasped at the true severity of her condition. The paramedics loaded them into the ambulances as Cragen took charge of the situation and instructed Elliot to ride with Olivia and Fin to ride with Dani. He and Munch would meet them at the hospital.  
All the way to the hospital, Elliot stroked Olivia's hand and talked softly to her, telling her more of his favorite memories of them together.

"Liv, baby, its me. We're on the way to the hospital now so you've got to hold on just a little while longer. Remember the first time we sparred in the gym, how you thought you could beat me, and almost did? I fell in love with you that day. You were so strong, and beautiful, even though you were covered in sweat and determined to beat me. We've had so many good memories together. I need you to pull through this so that we can have more. I can't live without you baby," Elliot continued as tears sprang to his eyes again, quickly wiping them away with the back of his hand. The paramedics continued to work on Olivia's condition, and within 10 minutes, they were at the hospital.

The next hours were a blur. Olivia had been rushed to surgery to release the pressure on her brain, stop the internal bleeding in her abdomen, and repair her collapsed lung. Dani had also been rushed to surgery in hopes of repairing her gunshot wound.

Elliot paced back and forth in the waiting room accompanied by Munch, Fin, Cragen, and Casey, as the hours drowned on. At one point, Dani's surgeon came out and informed the team that Dani had made it out of surgery ok, was in critical condition, but was resting peacefully. Now the real worry was Olivia.

"How are you holding up Elliot?" Don asked, approaching the spot where Elliot was standing.

"I don't know Cap, its killing me. I know its frowned upon in the precinct, but I'm in love with her. I can't lose her. She means everything to me."

"I know, I know. I've seen it for a long time. I think she feels the same way about you. I'm sure she'll be ok," Cragen said as he placed his hand on Elliot's shoulder. Munch brought up coffee for everyone and tried to lighten the mood, but until they heard word on Olivia, no one was going to be hungry or thristy. The group sat in silence, except for the occasional sigh, or the rustle of fabric as someone shifted in their seat. They had been at the hospital for about seven hours and it was about 8 in the evening, when a doctor finally came out.

"Are you here for an Olivia Benson?"

"Yes," the group simultaneously answered, standing up and crowding around the doctor. "How is she?" Elliot asked, panic mixing in his voice, "is she gonna be ok?"

"There was quite a bit of damage externally and internally. We were able to fix her lung, and stop the bleeding, but the pressure on her brain is a different story. We inserted a small tube in order to allow the fluid to drain, but right now, the pressure is still intense, and she is currently in a coma. Once the remaining fluid drains off, we will be able to tell the full extent of the damage, and assess whether there has been any permanent damage."

"So, she's gonna make it through right?" Munch questioned, asking the dreaded question that loomed in the air.

"Right now, I'd say she has a 50-50 chance of surviving. Her injuries were so extensive, and the risk for infection is huge, especially with a fluid drainage tube, and an infection would be fatal at this point. I'm so sorry. I wish I had better news. Right now, only time will tell. We have her on several pain killers, so at least she isn't in any pain. You can go in a few at a time and sit with her if you want. If you have any questions, just have the nurses station page me, and I'll be happy to talk with you guys." They thanked the doctor, and turned to Elliot.

"Elliot, you go first. We'll all wait here. She needs you Elliot. She'll fight through, she's so stubborn. This would be the last way she'd want to die," Cragen said with a hint of optimism. Elliot nodded and headed off toward her room.

'A 50-50 chance of surviving', 'the last way she'd want to die', 'would be fatal.' Bits and pieces of the previous conversation played over and over in Elliot's head as he approached Olivia's room and opened the door.

He stepped inside and closed the wooden door behind him. Allowing his eyes to gaze up to the bed, he saw her, lying lifeless on the bed. Her bottom half was covered by a green hospital blanket, and wires came from under her blue hospital gown and attached to a heart monitor. The steady beeping from the machine was the only way to know that she was still alive. A tube went into her nose supplying her with oxygen, and several IV lines ran from the bags on a pole and disappeared into her hand. He looked further toward her face, when he saw that a small part of her hair had been shaved, and a tube protruded from her head, allowing the excess fluid to drain. The entire area was covered in gauze. Dark circles underlined her eyes, and cuts and bruises littered her skin.

A lump rose in his throat and his lip began to quiver as he surveyed his best friend, the woman he loved. Elliot pulled a chair over to the edge of the bed and sat down, gently taking Olivia's hand in his, allowing his thumb to run lightly over her skin, caressing it.  
"Hey baby, its me again. You've scared me so much over these past couple of hours. I really need you to pull through this. You're going to be fine. Everyone's outside waiting for you to wake up. You've got to fight sweetie. For me. For Cragen, Munch, Fin, and Casey. For all of us. We all love you and need you to come back to us. I love you," Elliot said as a tear slid down the side of his face.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: Well, Christmas came and went, and unfortunately, even though my husband tried, he was unable to get the SVU characters for me, so they're still Dick Wolf's.

Ever since Olivia had been brought in, Elliot lived at the hospital. Munch had gone to Elliot's house that first night that Olivia had been brought in, and packed a small bag of essentials and a couple of changes of clothes for him. Elliot ate, slept, and showered in Olivia's room. He kept a constant vigil at her bedside. Everyday, he spent hours just talking to her and holding her hand. The rest of the crew stopped by every evening after work, and took turns giving Elliot a chance to get out of the room and walk around.

On the forth day that Olivia had been in the hospital, Olivia's condition began to improve. "Hey guys," Elliot greeted Cragen and Casey as they came for their evening visit, a grin covering his face.

"Stabler, I haven't seen you this happy in...well...I don't know...since before Olivia left. Good news I'm guessing?"

Elliot nodded,"The doctor came in earlier today and removed Olivia's drainage tube. They took her down the hall for a MRI and the results said that everything had drained properly, and she was healing nicely. He said that she should be waking up either today or tomorrow, but not to get our hopes up yet. She's moved slightly a couple of times, and her eyes flickered open once, but nothing significant yet."

"That's great news. I'll be so relieved when she's up and awake again, giving the doctors shit, and wanting to bust out of here," Casey giggled. Cragen smiled at the thought, himself wanting the same thing, but his smile turned solemn as he glanced at Elliot.

"Elliot, you look like hell, have you eaten at all today?" Cragen questioned.

"Not really, I had a bag of chips out of the vending machine, but I didn't want to go too far in case Olivia woke up. I wanted someone to be there with her when she did."

"Well, we're here now, so I want you to go and get something real to eat, none of that cafeteria shit. I don't want to see you back here for at least an hour and that's an order, or I'll make you go home and sleep there tonight."

"K cap, I'll go," Elliot laughed, holding up his hands in a surrendering position, " Just, if anything happens, call me immediately."

"We'll take good care of her, and if anything happens, we'll call."

With that, Elliot headed out the door, and toward his and Olivia's favorite Chinese restaurant.

Casey and Don sat in Olivia's room discussing Olivia's condition, and what they'd missed most about her while she'd been in a coma. The two shared some laughs, and the mood in the room was much lighter than it had been over the past couple of days.

Suddenly, Olivia's eyes opened, slowly, closed again at the sight of the light above her bed, and finally opened with caution. "Arrghh," she moaned.

"Olivia," Casey jumped up to her bedside, "hey its me, Casey. How are you feeling?"

"Where…Where am I?"

"You're in the hospital Olivia. You've been out of it for a couple of days now. You're safe now though," Cragen said, taking her hand in his.

"I'm going to go get the doctor, but I'll be right back. I'm so glad that you're awake. Do you need anything?" Casey said. Olivia shook her head no, and with that, Casey stepped out of the room.

"Hi, Olivia Benson in room 401, has just woken up, could you please page the doctor on duty?" Casey asked the nurse at the desk. After a few minutes, the doctor approached Casey.

"Hi, are you the one here for Olivia Benson?"

"Yes, I'm Casey. She woke up a couple of minutes ago."

"Ok, I'm going to go in and examine her, and I'll be back in a couple of minutes."

The doctor disappeared into Olivia's room, and Casey was joined by Cragen in the waiting room. Casey remembered that no one had called Elliot to tell him the news, so she called Elliot, while Cragen called Munch and Fin.

"Stabler"

"El, its me, Case, Olivia's awake."

"Oh my god, is she ok? Does she know who you are?"

"She's a little confused, but the doctor is in with her now, giving her a thorough check up. Captain is calling Munch and Fin and they're on their way."

"I'll be there as fast as I can. Thanks Case. Bye"

After about 20 minutes, Elliot, Munch, Fin, Casey, and Cragen were gathered in the waiting room, anxious to hear the doctor's report. The doctor came out of the room and approached them.

"Everything's good. Her vitals are normal, and she's responding well. She told me her name and she remembers who she is. I'd like to keep her here for a few more days to ensure that everything checks out, but I'd say that she should be able to go home by this weekend as long as someone would be able to be with her at all times, for a couple of weeks, just in case. She's resting, but you can go in and see her if you'd like. Just try not to force too much on her at once, she's still very weak."

Everyone smiled as a feeling of heaviness had been removed from the group. All eyes turned to Elliot, signaling him to go in and see her first. Anxiousness filled his throat, as he approached her room, as he had done countless times over the past four days. He opened the door, and walked over to her bedside. She opened her eyes, and looked at him.

"Elliot," she whispered softly.

"Hey Liv, I missed you," he said, taking one of her hands in his and holding it up to his lips, placing a soft kiss on her skin.

"What the hell?" she said a little bit louder, pulling her hand away from his.

"I'm sorry Liv, I've just been so worried about you. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"Get the hell out of my room!"

" Liv, I didn't mean to hurt you. I'm sorry." Elliot said starting to panic at the thought of having hurt her.

"Really? Did you not mean to hurt me when you kissed Dani outside the bar? Oh yeah, I saw that by the way. Did you not want to hurt me then too? Do you just go around kissing everyone these days?" she looked down at the blanket as her voice lowered into a whisper, "Get the fuck out. As far as I'm concerned I don't ever want to see you again. Our friendship and partnership are over, and if you so much as set foot in my room, I'll have you removed by hospital security. Now. Get. Out," Olivia replied, her voice soft, but harsh, as she lifted her finger to point to the door.

Tears began to pool in his eyes as Elliot turned and walked toward the door. He opened the door, and before leaving, he turned back to Olivia,

"Dani doesn't mean anything to me. Please believe me." He walked out into the waiting room, passing all of his friends as he headed down the hall to find some solitude.

"Elliot, are you ok?" Munch asked as he started to follow him.

"Just..don't...not now," Elliot replied holding up his hand to Munch and continuing down the hall.

"What the hell was that about?" Fin asked when Munch returned.

"I don't know, maybe its just emotional. It's been really hard on him. It's been hard on all of us."

"Do mind if I go next just to make sure that Olivia's ok?" Casey asked approaching Olivia's room.

"Go for it. We'll be here when you get back."


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: Happy New Year…and New SVU Episode tonight to you all! I still don't own them, just like in 2006, but if Dick Wolf doesn't end up negotiating with Mariska and Chris about their contracts, maybe I can step in and buy them?

Casey opened the door to Olivia's room to find her crying softly into her pillow.

"Liv, sweety. What's wrong? Do you need some more pain medication?"

"No," Olivia sniffled, embarrassed, wiping a few of the tears from her face as new ones fell to replace them.

Casey sat down in a chair next to the bed and held Olivia's hand while she continued to cry, patiently waiting for Olivia to be the one to talk first. After a good 10 minutes, Olivia spoke again.  
"He kissed her. He fucking kissed her," sobs shook her body as the sadness consumed her.

"Who, honey, who is he, and who did he kiss?"

"Elliot. He kissed Dani. That night in the parking lot outside the bar. The night that I went home with Ryan. I saw them together. He kissed her and they only stopped because someone called," she paused, attempting to get her emotions under control, "I'm crazy, Case. I'm in the hospital, and the doctor told me all the injuries I have, and yet the only thing that I'm upset about is Elliot. I was raped Case, did you know that? Raped, and still, I'm only pissed at Elliot." She continued to cry, "He kissed my hand when he came in, and I went ballistic on him and told him that I would have security all over his ass if he came back to my room."

Casey was shocked at the news that Olivia had just told her, and attempted to pull herself together for her friend, "You're not crazy, Liv. You're in love. He means something special to you, and that doesn't just go away at once. I know you don't believe me, but he really does care for you Olivia. He's lived here for the past four days, staying by your bed day and night, waiting for you to wake up."

Olivia just shook her head at that information, not wanting to accept it. Right then, it was easier to be pissed off than heartbroken.

"I meant what I said, Case. I don't want him in my life anymore. It just hurts too much," Olivia sighed, closing her eyes.

Casey continued to hold Olivia's hand until Olivia's breathing eventually leveled off, signaling that she was asleep. Casey inched off the chair, and went into the hall to find Cragen, Munch, and Fin sitting in the waiting area.

"How is she doing?"

"She's asleep now, but she was pretty upset earlier. Apparently she saw Elliot kiss Dani."

"What?!?"

"The other night, the night that she went home with Blake, she saw the two of them kissing in the parking lot of the bar. She told me when she got home from Oregon that she was in love with him, and seeing them together really broke her heart. She said that he kissed her hand and she went off on him, and told him that she would have him kicked out if he stepped foot in her room again."

"So that's where Elliot went," Cragen said, nodding his head as he took in everything, "He told me a couple of days ago that he loves her so much, I know that this must be a really hard time for both of them. I think I'm going to go try to find him and talk to him. Knowing Elliot, he's still here in the hospital somewhere. All the force in the world couldn't make him leave her here alone. As for now, I think that it would be best if we all allowed Olivia to continue in her decision to not talk to him. When she's ready, she'll bring it up, but we can't force her to."

Elliot made his way down the hospital corridor to the atrium garden area, his favorite place in the hospital, if you can have a favorite place there. He pushed open the glass door and walked down the concrete path until he reached a small pond area with koi fish and a waterfall. Exhausted, he collapsed onto a bench and stared, allowing his vision to blur at the sight of the water. 'What the hell have I done? Olivia's hurt, Dani's hurt, I'm in love with Olivia, but she hates me.' Elliot's thoughts were interrupted by Don's hand patting him on the shoulder.

"I heard what happened with Olivia."

"Cap, I really don't want to talk about it."

"Ok, then we'll just sit here in silence," Cragen said , taking a seat on the bench, staring at the same spot in the pond as Elliot. After a minute of silence, he spoke again, "It's not your fault El. You can't blame yourself for what happened."

"How can you say that it's not my fault? I upset her. Me. The one person that she should be able to rely on let her down. If I hadn't been so absorbed in my life, I would have known she was back. She wouldn't have been at that bar alone. She wouldn't have almost...," Elliot's voice cracked, as a couple of warm tears streamed down his face, "died. It is ALL my fault. She deserved better."

"Yeah, Elliot," Cragen sighed, "You're right, she deserved better; she deserved the best,... she deserved you. You were the one that's always been there for her. You have a bond with her that everyone in the precinct is envious of. She loves you and you love her. Everyone's seen it for a long time now, we've all just been waiting for you two to figure it out."

"I can't lose her, but she hates me right now."

"Right now, maybe, but not forever. Just give her some time Elliot, she'll come around, she always does." With that, Cragen stood up from the bench, gave Elliot a reassuring pat on the back, and left the room.

Elliot sat in the atrium for a while longer deciding that he was not about to give up on her, and would do whatever he had to do to ensure her recovery.

Two more days had gone by since his talk with Cragen, and Elliot had spent them sleeping in the waiting room, wandering the halls of the hospital, and sitting in the atrium, thinking. He kept true to her wishes and never stepped foot in her room, and made sure to stay out of view when the door was open. The last thing he wanted to do was upset her more. He continually checked in with the doctors and his co-workers on her condition, and hoped that eventually she would want to talk to him again, and that she would allow him to once again be a part of her life.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I'm totally excited about tomorrow's episode "Burned". Mariska quoted it as being one of her favorites, and I have absolutely loved the other ones that she calls favorites, "911", "Wrath", and "Fault". Dick, I know you own them, and I probably can't afford them, but maybe we could work something out like a 'rent-to-own' package or something?

"Hey Dani," Elliot said as he opened the door to his temporary partner's room. He didn't really want to see her, but it was the polite thing to do, even if she was a frizzy haired bitch, "so...how's it feel to finally be going home?"

Dani was dressed, hair braided, sitting cross legged on the bed. "Well, I would know if the stupid doctor would ever show up to release me. I'm getting so anxious sitting in here. It'll be nice just to get back to Florida and as far away from SVU as possible."

"Florida? When you said you were going home to where it was warm, I was certain you meant hell!" He said laughing.

"You're an ass, Stabler," she said rolling her eyes, " you staying here until Olivia gets released?"

"Yeah, I'm going to. The doctor said it would only be a couple more days until she can leave, and I know she'd be ok if I went home, but I just couldn't live with myself if something happened and I wasn't nearby."

"You really are in love with her, aren't you?"

"Yeah...I am...", he paused, letting a sigh escape his lips, "now if only she felt the same."

Down the hall from Dani's room, where the mood was light, Olivia had fallen into depression, and was only getting worse by the day. Normally, she would have jumped at the opportunity to finally have permission to get up and around, but she insisted on lying in her bed all day long, with the exception of bathroom breaks, and a daily shower. She'd spend her time sleeping, or staring at the wall, and when she thought no one was listening, she would cry.

"Olivia," Casey said with a sigh, " The doctor said that you can go home hopefully day after tomorrow, but first you have to show everyone that you can get up and get around."

"Girl, you've been in this room for almost a week now. Lets take a little field trip," Fin said with a grin, gently tugging on Olivia's arm.

"I just want to lay here. Thanks anyways," Olivia said as she closed her eyes and waved her hand as to dismiss the thought of going anywhere.

"Ummm...not an option, or a question. We're going, and you're coming too."

After a small bout of resistence from Olivia, Casey and Fin helped her into the wheelchair, and wheeled her down the hall to the atrium. They went inside and sounds of trickling waterfalls surrounded them, as well as the smell of plants and flowers. The three sat for a while. Talked. Not about anything in particular, just how much they wanted Olivia to be able to go home and get better. Olivia hadn't brought Elliot up in the past two days, and no one asked her about him.

"Girl, the food here blows. That should be reason enough for you to want to get out. I'll make you a deal. You get better, and any takeout food you want is yours, my treat," Fin said nudging her in the side, getting a small smile from Olivia in return, "See? All skin and bones. What's Munch going to think about his hospital conspiracies now?"

Before she could reply, the door to the atrium opened, and Elliot and Dani strolled in and came face to face with Casey, Fin, and Olivia.

"Lets just go," Elliot said, taking hold of Dani's arm.

"No that's ok, we were just leaving. We'll leave you two alone," Olivia said, wheeling her chair around so that she was facing him directly, her stone hard stare cutting right into Elliot.

"Liv, this isn't what it looks like, please don't go. We need to talk."

"Elliot, She'll talk when she's ready. Please just leave her alone," Casey demanded, stepping in between the two.

Fin took hold of Olivia's wheelchair, and maneuvered her past Dani and Elliot, with an icy stare, and wheeled her back to her room.

After she was settled back in her bed, Olivia was the first to break the uneasy silence that had blanketed the room, "How can he tell me that it's not what it looks like? He's walking around with her on his arm. He hasn't even checked up on me in two days now."

"Sweetie," Casey started tentatively, "you told him you'd have security all over his ass if he got near you. He's been sleeping in the waiting room outside your door ever since then. He wants to be close to you, he just knew you didn't want him to right now."

"Or ever. I meant what I said, as far as I'm concerned, our friendship is over." Olivia closed her eyes again, hoping to avoid any further conversation about him.

"What's up with her?" Dani asked as she and Elliot sat on a stone ledge in the atrium, "She's got some nerve talking to you like that after you risked your life for her."

"She's upset, now do you see what I mean? I can't talk to her. She doesn't want to hear it."

"So...you're just going to avoid her after she returns to work? That's not going to be a very productive partnership."

"I don't know, god!" Elliot raged, "I don't know what I'm going to do..." Elliot rubbed his hands over his face, and released his breath, "I'm sorry Dani. I...uh…"

"It's ok." The two sat in silence for a couple of moments before Elliot spoke again.

"Hey, we've been gone for about twenty minutes," Elliot said, changing the subject, wanting badly to get away from her, " We should probably head back to your room so you don't miss the doctor, and your chance to finally break out of here." They climbed off the ledge and were walking back to Dani's room when suddenly, all of the color drained from Elliot's face. "Elliot, are you ok? You're not looking so good."

Before Elliot could respond, his body went limp as he passed out and hit his head on a crash cart that had been sitting up against the wall in the hall.  
Dani bent down beside him, holding her hand over the gash on his forehead that was now bleeding onto the floor. "I need some help over here!" she screamed as doctors and nurses scrambled down the hall, pooling around him, assessing the situation.

"Pulse is steady. Head injury, possible concussion, possible neck injury. Get me a stabilizer for his neck," the doctor barked out orders. One of the doctors quickly secured the neck brace into place, "We'll move him on my count. Ready. One. Two. Three." They quickly lifted him onto a stretcher, and wheeled him down the hall to perform a more thorough exam.

Dani hurried alongside him, but after being asked to wait outside the room, she then retreated to her own room to call Cragen to inform him of the current situation.

"Cragen"

"Hey its Dani. I just thought you should know that Elliot is in the hospital."

"Yeah, I know. He's staying there until Olivia gets released. Did you need something else Dani, or just to report Elliot's whereabouts?"

"No, I mean IN THE HOSPITAL, as in he passed out and hit his head."

"Oh…Is he ok?"

"No word yet. Last I heard, he was unconscious, and they were giving him a CAT scan to assess potential brain damage."

"Ok, I'll call Munch, we'll be there soon. Call Fin because last I heard, he and Casey were visiting Olivia, so they should still be there"

A couple of hours later, after a concussion, 10 stitches from the fall, and a diagnosis of extreme dehydration and exhaustion brought on by stress, the doctors had Elliot in his own room, strongly insisting for him to stay the night for observation due to his head injury. Cragen, Munch, Fin, and Casey gathered in his room.

"I know it's a crash cart, but that doesn't mean to crash into it," Munch said, teasing Elliot.

"God, Munch, that was bad, even for your jokes," Elliot replied, returning a smile, then wincing at the pain of moving his head around too much, "so did Dani head home?"

"Yeah, after she was released, about an hour after your little incident with the hospital apparatus," Cragen said, joining in on the Elliot banter.

"Fine, fine, laugh if you will, but if I had gone into cardiac arrest, the paddles would have been right there," Elliot laughed at himself, then his face turned serious, "how's Olivia? I think I really pissed her off earlier."

"She's ok. She's asleep right now. We didn't tell her what happened to you though. We didn't want to add anymore stress to her, so don't feel bad if she doesn't come to visit you."

"Well, considering our track record right now, I think I would be stretching it to get a Hallmark card."

After another hour or so of conversation, the group left Elliot to get some rest. Elliot laid in his bed, alone for the first time since his incident with Olivia, replaying everything in his head. He eventually fell into a dreamless sleep.

About 2 in the morning, Olivia awoke to find someone leaving her room, but all she could make out was a shadow of the person.

"Excuse me, did you need something?" Olivia asked, "Hey, who the hell are you, come back." Whoever the person was continued on their way and closed the door without responding to her. She switched on the light over her bed, and she glanced around the room the see if anything had changed in her surroundings. She looked over and found a manila envelope on the table next to her bed, with a note taped to the front.

'Thought you might want to know what happened in between the apartment and here. When you get done, if you want to talk to Elliot, call 813-8746, and ask for his room number.'

'What the hell?' The handwriting resembled Casey's, but Olivia wasn't sure.

She opened the envelope and found copies of Dani and Elliot's statements from the day that Olivia was found. She fumbled through the pages, and decided to read Dani's first.

'We arrived at the scene, and after a thorough check of the premises, Detective Stabler and I discovered a locked door inside the closet, which after removing the lock, was found to house Olivia Benson. Detective Stabler approached her, and checked her pulse. He was attending to her injuries, while I called for a bus. Blake entered the apartment unnoticed due to mine and my partners attention on the victim. After holding us at gunpoint, Detective Stabler was given an ultimatum as to who would live, myself or Olivia, but replied that he would allow himself to die instead. The sniper shot Blake, as Blake shot me, which is the last thing I remember.'

"Oh my god," Olivia whispered, clasping her hand to her mouth, "they were held at gunpoint, and Elliot was going to die for me, ...and then I treated him like shit." Tears began to form and stream down her face, as she read Elliot's statement. It described the same procedure as Dani's.

'What have I done? He really has been nothing but nice to me and what have I done for him besides be a jealous bitch?' Olivia reached for a tissue off the bedside table and wiped her tear streaked face. After a few minutes, the initial shock and upset had subsided and Olivia decided that she needed to talk to Elliot, and apologize for everything she had done, not caring that it was two in the morning. She began to dial his cell phone number, then remembered what the note said. She dialed the number and was surprised as to the voice on the other end. "Bellevue Hospital, Front Desk, how may I assist you today?"

Confused, Olivia sat in silence. "Hello, Bellevue Hospital, can I direct your call, or assist you with a room number?"

"No, I'm sorry. I must have the wrong number." Olivia hung up the phone, and re-dialed the number.

"Bellevue Hospital, how may I help you tonight?"

"Um, well...I don't...," Olivia stumbled over her words, panic mixing in her voice as she remembered the note, "I think I need Elliot Stabler's room number please." "Stabler? How do you spell that?"

" S-T-A-B-L-E-R"

"Yes, Elliot Stabler. He's in room 409. Can I assist you with anything else?"

"No." Olivia quickly hung up the phone, her mind racing as to why Elliot was in the hospital and whether he was ok or not. She had to go see him no matter how painful it was to move around. She took a deep breath and mentally prepared herself for the ensuing pain. She struggled and eased herself over to the edge of the bed and, carefully with her two broken legs, lowered herself into the wheelchair sitting next to her bed, knowing that if she asked for assistance, the nurses would insist that she returned to bed. She slowly eased toward the door. Peeking out, she saw that no one was currently in the nurses station, and wheeled down the hall to find him


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I'm so sorry that I haven't updated this story in so long. School is back in full swing, and stressful as ever, leaving little time for me to enjoy our favorite detectives. Just like last time, Dick still owns them, and I guess it's a good thing since I'm so irresponsible with them, and don't update. If I had to care for them on a daily basis, they'd probably be dead by now. That's depressing, anyways, on with the story.

Her stomach became twisted and queasy as she neared his room. She grasp the door handle with sweaty palms from nervousness, and pushed the door open, allowing herself enough room to wheel inside. Olivia positioned herself in the corner of the room by the door, and took in the appearance of Elliot, willing herself to keep her emotions in check. A large piece of white gauze covered his forehead, and he had an IV attached to his arm. Other than those two things, he looked perfectly healthy, and sexy as always. As she was staring, he slowly opened his eyes and looked lovingly at her.

"Hey," Olivia's voice cracked, as emotion overcame her.

"Hey there," Elliot replied, lifting a hand to give her a small wave.

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm ok," he said, sitting up a little bit, "how are you doing?"

"I'm ok," she whispered, a single tear rolling down her cheek.

Seeing her uneasiness at the situation, Elliot attempted to break the ice, "Liv, you don't have to stay all the way over there. I don't bite."

She cracked a half smile, "I know, but I feel better over here. It's easier to get away when you decide to go off on me about how I've treated you."

"Liv…," he started with a sigh, as if to say, 'you know that's not true', but decided against it, "Ok, I'll just come to you then," Elliot said as he pushed back the burgundy blanket, eased out of his bed in his hospital issued gown on top and blue scrubs on bottom, and padded across the tile floor, over to where she sat, squatting down in front of her, tentatively taking her hands in his.

"El," she sighed, "you should get back in bed"

"You're the one that should be in bed! I'm ok, just a little head injury," he said, motioning to the gauze.

"Why are you being so nice to me? I just treated you like shit, when you were willing to sacrifice your life to Ryan so that I could live," not looking up.

"Liv...I...wait, how did you know that?"

"Someone left me a copy of yours and Dani's statements from my file. I'm so sorry," Olivia managed to get out before sobs overtook her body. Tears streamed down her face, as she stared at the ever blurring pattern on her hospital gown.

"Liv," Elliot said allowing his hands to caress her face, tipping it up to face him, as tears welled in his eyes, "don't be sorry. You have no reason to be sorry. It's ok. You were upset, and you had every right to be. I'm the one who should be sorry for hurting you. Dani meant nothing. I only kissed her because she was there, I was lonely, and I was trying to fill a void that you left when you went to Oregon."

"I've been your partner for 8 years, and you've never kissed me," Olivia whispered, wiping a few tears from her face

.  
"Not yet anyways," Elliot said as he gave her his signature shit-eating grin, as he wiped away a few more of her tears, "no, seriously Liv, I didn't want to screw anything up between us. You're my best friend and I didn't want to put that in jeopardy."

Olivia nodded silently, taking in everything that he had just said.

He ran his fingers gently across her face, feeling her icy skin, "you're freezing, Liv, come on, lets get you back to bed." Elliot stood up, and began to walk around to the back of the wheelchair.

"El, I'd really rather stay here."

"Come on Liv, you really should get back in bed. You need your rest."

"But…I'm…" she sighed, "fine."

"Yeah, you sound fine. Nope, back to bed for you," Elliot grasped the handles of the wheelchair and guided her back down the hall to her room. He wheeled her up next to her bed. Olivia shifted in the wheelchair in order to lift herself out and back into her bed. "Here, let me help you," Elliot said, reaching his hands out to her.

"Really, I can do it myself."

"I know you can, but I want to help you. Please, let me. For me."

Olivia nodded, as Elliot gently threaded his arms behind her back, and legs, lifting her out of the wheelchair, and setting her back down in her bed.

"Thanks," Liv whispered. "Get some rest," he said, patting her hand, "I'll see you tomorrow." He turned and began to head toward the door, unsure of what to do next.

"El, stay."

"Liv, are you sure?" he said turning back toward the bed.

"Please?" she said, patting a spot next to her on the bed.

"Ok, here. Scoot over," he said sliding into bed next to her, pulling the covers over the both of them.

"Are you comfortable?"

"Yeah, are you?"

"Yeah… so you really didn't care about Dani?" she said, closing her eyes.

"No, she was just there. You're the only one that I care about. You've been the only one. For 8 years, even when you shouldn't have been, you've been the only one," he said, caressing her skin, sending her skin on fire from his touch, and chills down her spine.

"Thanks for not giving up on me, El."

"I'd never give up on you. Not now. Not ever. You're my partner. I love you," Elliot said, before a look of shock crept over his face. He did love her. He just hadn't planned on telling her how he felt about her so soon, "I'm…I… I didn't mean to…"

"It's ok, El, I love you too. I think I have for a while now."

"God, Liv, I was so scared, seeing you on the floor of that apartment. I thought I'd lost you for good that time."

"I know, I know. Me too."

With that, Elliot gently laced his fingers through hers, and turned her face to face him, brushing his lips against her forehead in one swift motion.  
Electricity ran through his body from the feel of her skin on his lips. He pulled her close and gently rubbed circles on her back with his fingertips.

"So, is this...?" Olivia began to overanalyze the situation, when Elliot cut her off.

"Go to sleep, Liv. We can talk more in the morning." A small smile crept to her lips, as she snuggled closer into his shoulder, finally giving in to the overwhelming desire to fall asleep, and for the first time in her life, she felt truly safe, secure, and content.

The next morning around 6:30, one of the nurses entered Olivia's room performing her morning rounds to discover both of the patients sound asleep in one tiny bed.

"Ahheamm," the nurse made an exaggerated noise mimicking clearing her throat, and flicking on the lights, flooding the room in bright florescent lighting.

"What the...," Elliot started to sit up, but found something in the way.

Rubbing his eyes, he slowly remembered that he was not is his room, but Olivia's and that something in the way was indeed Olivia's arm, rested across his chest.

"More than one person sleeping in a hospital bed at a time is strictly prohibited, as per hospital policy," the nurse rudely stated, "and I suggest that you immediately return to your own room for morning rounds."

"I don't know who you think you are lady, but I'm not going anywhere. You can take your hospital policy and shove it up your...," Elliot went off.

"Elliot!" Olivia interrupted, now fully awake from the commotion, "someone sure woke up on the angry side of the bed."

"Morning Liv," Elliot swooned.

"As sweet as this is," her voice laced with sarcasm, " I have a job to do, and if you two are not willing to cooperate, I will be forced to get hospital administration," the nurse scowled at them, placing her hands on her hips.

"You can do your morning rounds with both of us here in one room, oh and could you let the doctor in charge of signing my discharge papers where I am. Thanks. That would save me a trip," Elliot spat back.

"El, what about your clothes? They're back in the other room," Olivia questioned.

"Shit, you're right. Fine Nurse McBitchy. You win, but only because I'm not leaving this hospital dressed in a flimsy gown. I'll be back in a little bit, Liv." He slid out of bed to return to his room when Olivia stopped him.

"McBitchy? Seriously El? I think your girls have had you watching too much Grey's Anatomy"

Elliot simply let out a laugh, and left the room, shaking his head.

A few hours later, Elliot appeared back at Olivia's door, fully dressed, wearing his coat.

"Going somewhere?" Olivia questioned with a laugh, taking in his ensemble.

"Yes, we are," he grinned.

"We?"

"Yep, the doc should be here any minute to let you sign your discharge papers. Your morning tests showed enough improvement for you to be released, into the care of another person, of course."

"So does this mean that you're responsible for my sponge baths now?" Olivia said with a mischievous grin on her face, and a wink.

"Oh yeah!" he said, flashing that shit-eating grin again, "you can just call me Nurse Staber!"

"You're so sexy Stabler. I love you!"

"You're not so bad yourself Benson," he said winking at her, "... oh, and I love you too."

A couple of hours later, Olivia had been released into Elliot's care, settled into his jeep, and was excited about getting to go home, well at least to Elliot's home. It was better than the hospital, and would give them a chance to truely talk about what was going on between them.

"Um...Liv?" Elliot questioned as they drove along, "I kinda don't have any groceries, do you mind if we make a pit stop at the grocery store?"

"Well, seeing as I like to eat and all, I guess I can make an exception for you. I think I'll wait in the car though. Its nice and warm in here compared to how cold it is outside. Heard we're supposed to get a snow storm tonight."

"Hmm...snowed in with the most beautiful woman in New York. I'll take it!"

"Stabler, go get the groceries," she said, hitting him lightly in the arm.

"Ok, ok I'm going, I'll leave the keys, and I'll try not to take too long," he said, closing his car door and jogging toward the grocery store entrance, attempting to keep out of the cold.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: Again, sorry about the delay. I wrote this chapter, re-wrote it because I didn't like it, forgot to save it, wrote it again, and I'm still not happy with it completely, but there is a new episode tonight, so if you're disappointed in this, look forward to that! Oh and Dick, forget the roses for Valentines Day, Olivia and Elliot would be just fine, thanks.

Later that evening, after Elliot and Olivia had gotten home from the store and settled in, Cragen, Munch, Fin, and Casey had brought take out Chinese food for everyone and decided to hang out and watch a movie with Elliot and Olivia , as a welcome home party for the both of them. Cragen sat on the love seat with Munch, while Fin, Casey and Olivia sat on the couch, and Elliot took the recliner.

"This is really good," Casey said taking a bite of chicken lo mein.

"Uh, yeah, that's why we bought it, Casey," Fin said rolling his eyes playfully, "What did you think? That we had no taste in Chinese food at all?"

"Well, if its anything like Munch's coffee..." she grinned.

"Hey, I'll have you know that Chinese food is a ploy by the government between America and China to..." Munch chimed in with another conspiracy theory.

"Uggg, Munch," Olivia said tossing an empty container at his head.

"Hey, that could have hit me!"

"Yeah, its too bad that it didn't," Elliot chimed in, hopping up to grab some more beers from the refrigerator.

He walked back into his living room, just as Fin and Casey both went to grab the last egg roll out of the container.

"Hey girl, give that back," he said scowling at her.

"Not a chance. You could really use some practice with your intimidation tactics. Not working on me," Casey spat back, her attorney face on.

"Well I don't know about tactics, but that egg roll is mine," he said snatching it out of her hands.

"Fin, you jerk," she said, attempting to wrestle him off the couch.

Her ploy succeeded and the two were on the floor, with Casey trying to pin him down. After a few minutes, Fin stopped struggling with her and simply picked her, kicking and screaming playfully, up and sat her back down on the couch.

"You done trying to play with the big boys?" he laughed.

"Whatever, eat your stupid egg roll, I didn't want it anyways." Casey said folding her arms in a fake attempt to pout, trying not to crack a smile.

"Here, I'll split it with you"

"Thanks," she said monotonously.

After a couple of hours, and an action movie, then a chick flick for the ladies, everyone gathered up their stuff and headed for the door, hoping to beat the impending ice and snow.

"We'll see you guys later!" Elliot said, closing the door of his apartment. Elliot sat down next to Olivia on the couch, slipping his arm around her, pulling her close.

"Its nice to be able to do this again," Elliot said gesturing to his arms wrapped around her.

"Mmmm," she nodded, "Its nice to be home again."

"Home? Why Detective Benson, I haven't even properly kissed you yet, and you're already calling my place home? Moving a bit fast aren't we?"

"Well," she giggled, " if someone would kiss me, we could move a bit faster!"

"Oh really. Is that so?"

With that, Elliot's lips came crashing down on hers, full of passion, lust, love, and 8 years of waiting. Olivia returned the kiss, her lips caressing and nipping at his. He gently bit her lip, then kissed the sting away. She opened her mouth wider and allowed Elliot to explore every inch of it with his tongue, as she did the same to his.

Elliot's breath was heavy and warm, as he moved from her lips to kiss her neck, one hand in her hair, and the other rubbing her back underneath her shirt. She shuddered at his touch, allowing her fingers to trace down his stomach and come into contact with the hem of his t-shirt. She grabbed the soft material in her hands, and removed his t-shirt, exposing his tan, hard muscles. Her lips traced each of his pecs, while her hands grasp at him with everything she had inside her. Her legs were resting on his lap, and she felt him growing with excitement, bulging with hardness inside his jeans. Olivia let her hands wander down his chest, and trace down his stomach, resting on the top of his jeans. She looked at the bulge under the fabric, and lowered her hand until hand came into contact with him. She gently rubbed her fingers along its length, massaging pure delight into it.

"God Liv," Elliot moaned. His hands had now disappeared underneath the hem of her shirt, and were stroking her braless breasts, careful to avoid her injuries. His fingers gently slipped over each of her hard nipples, rolling and pinching them in between his fingers.

"El," she gasped, wet with anticipation. Olivia unbuttoned his pants, and began to pull them off, when Elliot stopped her.

"Liv, are you sure about this? I mean, you're still recovering and everything."

"El, I've never been more sure about something," she said kissing him, " We'll just be gentle, but I don't want to wait another day to be with you."

"I love you, Liv"

"I love you too." With that, Elliot, kicked off his jeans, leaving him in only his boxers, scooped her up and carried her off to the bedroom and laid her down on the bed. The twosome proceeded to have a wonderful evening of pleasure, and getting to know each other on a more intimate level than ever before. After they were finished, they laid in bed together, their bodies glistening with sweat, and intertwined in the sheets. Elliot rolled over on his side and brushed a stray strand of hair out of her face, gently placing it behind her ear.

"Well, I'm thinking that counts as kissing you, does that mean that you live with me now?"

"I don't know, are you asking, like really asking?"

"Yeah, I want you to move in with me. I want this to be home for both of us."

"Ok"

"Ok? As in that was way too sudden to ask that kind of question and now you're freaked out, and I totally ruined the moment, and I'm such an idiot..."

"El,...stop," she said, rubbing her fingers along his arm, " I'll move in. On two conditions."

"Those are?"

"That we get to do this more often," she said kissing his lips.

"I think that can be arranged," he said holding her close to him, gently running his fingers through her hair, "I'm so glad you're ok."

She laced her fingers through his and pulled even closer to him, " I'm glad that we're ok," she paused, her face filling with worry, " but what about work? I mean it'll be a couple weeks until I get the casts off, and can go back, but what's Cragen going to say about all this?"

"He already knows. We had a chance to talk a couple of times while you were in the hospital, and he said that if anything ever happened between us, that we could remain partners as long we kept it totally out of work."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but that means we can't make out in the interrogation room," he said pretending to stick out his lip to pout.

"No, we just have to make sure that everyone else has gone home first," she returned, kissing his pouting lip.

"I like the way you think Detective Benson. Wait. I know one of the conditions, what's the other one?"

"Well, it's tied into the first one," she said blushing.

"Liv, what is it? You're blushing. I don't think I've ever seen you blush," he said admiring how cute she looked , with a tint of redness on her cheeks, even in the moonlight.

"I've had this fantasy of making love to you in the shower for a while now, and I'd like to experience it for real."

"Oh...shower sex, hell yeah, I'm there."

"Really? So, Stabler, You have any fantasies I can help you out with?"

"The crib"

"Really?"

"Yeah. Do you know how many times we were up there just the two of us trying to catch a few hours of sleep, but the entire time I spent fantasizing about going over to your bed and making love to you?"

"You're not alone," she replied, grinning, "...Elliot?"

"Yeah?"

"What's gonna happen when I move in here? I mean we've never really dated or anything. I'm afraid we're going to hate each other."

"Liv, I've known you for 8 years now. I know you well enough to know what I'm doing and not regret it. I know that we're probably going to fight more in a day than most couples do in a year, but I also know that I'd rather spend one day fighting with you than the rest of my life with someone else."

"Ahh, Stabler, you read that off a card?"

"Hey," he said putting up his hands in mock defense, "I can be sentimental when I want to be. It just doesn't happen very often. Gotta be manly," he said, flexing his muscles.

"Do you think we should at least go on a date first before we jump into this and I come in and invade your bathroom?"

"Liv, we've been on tons of dates over the past 8 years. We're way past our first date."

"Hmm...I don't remember those dates unless your idea of a good date is watching creepy people on stakeouts and sneaking out of work to go down the block to Starbucks for some real coffee," she said rolling her eyes, feigning frustration.

"Hey you forgot about early morning breakfast runs after you text me in the middle of the night and just have to talk to me on my steps. My personal favorite."

"Wow, Stabler, You really know how to treat a girl!" she proclaimed, sarcasm lacing her voice.

"Yep, always the charmer," he replied grinning at her.

"I guess I'm just scared that this won't work out. I mean, you're always the one I go to after I end it with a guy and complain about how horrible the sex was. If we end it, then who will I talk to?"

"Well, first of all, from the activities earlier this evening and your response to them, I doubt that the sex will be horrible, and secondly, you'll always be my best friend, and I would never let anything come in between that."

"But what if it does, and we don't work, and then I have to transfer...I would have to move out, and..."

"Liv," Elliot said placing his finger over her lips, "has anyone ever told you that you worry about details way too much?"

"Yeah, but it's what I do, its what makes me a good detective."

"It's what makes you a great detective, but sometimes the details can't be planned for, and you just have to take a chance. Liv, please take that chance with me."

"Ok, as long as we can just take this slow. I want to get to know you as Elliot my boyfriend, not Elliot my hot once-married and totally off limits partner."

"I'm ok with taking it slow, as long as it means that I get to take it slow with you. We'll just take it one day at a time," Elliot gently pressed his lips against her forehead, nuzzling his nose in her hair.

"Yeah," Olivia closed her eyes, allowing herself to feel Elliot's warmth and touch, "so did you ever think it would be you and me?"

"Nope, never. I always wished it would be, but I doubted you would feel the same. And now..., I like this whole you and me thing."

"I couldn't agree more," she said closing her eyes, her eyelids heavy from sleepiness.

"Liv, go to sleep, I'll still be here when you wake up."

"Thanks, El. Good night."

"Night, Liv."

A/N: Don't worry, we're not done yet. They work at SVU, did you think that their lives would just be happily ever after? Nope, let the drama continue!


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I still don't own them, and after my luck on Christmas gifts from Dick, I doubt Valentine's Day from Dick will be any better.

A couple of weeks later, Olivia had successfully moved all her belongings into Elliot's apartment, and gotten her casts off. She received permission to return to work on desk duty and light tasks as long as she continued to attend physical therapy twice a week to build strength in her legs again. Although it was a painful process for her, for the next month, she happily complied to all of the doctor's orders in order to regain full control of her life.

"Morning El," she said as she walked into the precinct around 10, holding a slip of paper triumphantly in her hand.

"Nice of you to finally join us," Munch teased.

"Well...whats's the verdict?" Elliot said standing up from his chair and approaching her, knowing that she had been at a doctor's appointment for an evaluation of her progress during physical therapy.

"Clear!" she smiled, "I can officially return to full duty work tasks!"

"Great! Now you can do my paperwork, good to hear," Fin said with a laugh, pushing a stack of folders toward the edge of his desk in her direction, "Nah, really that's great, I know how much you hate to be on desk duty."

"I'm going to turn this into Cragen, and then we can hit the streets, and guys, Elliot and I are catching the first case, so don't even think of trying to get assigned to anything but paperwork today."

She approached his door and raised her hand to knock, before entering, when the door swung open, startling her.

"Cap, I..."

"Congrats, Olivia," he interrupted, "Your co-workers over there have loud mouths," he said smiling at her, taking the note out of her hand.

"Thanks."

"Okay, people. We're back at full force, so no more excuses for incomplete tasks. Now, I just got a call from downtown, looks like a rape/ homicide. Killer spray painted on the wall, "eye for an eye". That's all I've got on it right now. Stabler, Benson, get to the scene and see what you can find. Munch, Fin, get on that phrase and see if it matches any M.O.s. Lets get on this. We need leads three hours ago!"

Elliot and Olivia hopped in the sedan, Elliot electing to drive. He maneuvered the car out of the parking lot and onto the crowded street, as he looked over at her and smiled.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"No reason, just happy that you're back here beside me again."

"Trust me, not nearly as happy as I am, but if you keep looking at me instead of driving, we're going to... rear-end them", she screeched the last part, as Elliot slammed on the brakes, barely missing the bumper of the minivan in front of them.

"Sorry," He said, gripping the wheel firmly with two hands, heart racing from the sudden burst of energy.

"S'okay. Maybe I'll drive next time," she said half-jokingly as she released her white knuckled grasp on the seat.

The twosome maneuvered through the busy streets and approached the alley where the body was found. They hoped out of the car, falling into perfect sync with each other.

"Detective Stabler, this is Detective Benson, SVU, whadda' we got?" Elliot said flashing his badge to the uniformed officers and slipping under the crime scene tape, lifting it for Olivia to slide under as well.

"Well, don't know much. Owner of this restaurant," he said pointing to a little diner, "was taking out the trash this morning getting ready for the breakfast rush, and saw the graffiti on the alley side of his building. He was pissed, and went over to get a closer look at it, and found the vic. He went inside and called 911, but no actual witnesses. Now as for the vic, she appears to be 25-30 years old, Caucasian, no id. At some point during the attack, the killer actually cut one of her eyes out of her face. No one's found it, so we're assuming he took it with him," one uniformed officer explained.

"An eye for an eye...literally," Elliot said running his hand over his short, brown hair.

"Do we have any prints, DNA, hairs? Anything to go on?" Olivia said, looking closely at the body.

"No, looks like the perp wore gloves, and a condom, which he took with him."

"Ok, well get her transported to the M.E.'s office and we'll see what we can come up with there. El, you think we should join the breakfast rush and talk to our restaurant owner here?"

"Sounds good, do you think we could get the precinct to pay for our breakfast if its work related?"

"Elliot," Olivia gave him a death stare. She knew that he was just kidding and that it was easier to deal with the traumatic things they were exposed to every day if they had a good sense of humor, but sometimes, it felt irreverent to the victim to be making jokes right afterward.

After speaking to the diner owner and coming up with nothing more, they retreated to the sedan, Olivia electing to drive this time.

"What do you make of it, El? Obviously that message was meant for someone, but who, and why?"

"Yeah, I don't know. Maybe the victim did something to the killer, so he was repaying her."

"But, why spray paint the message? If she's dead, it doesn't serve any purpose."

"Maybe not to you and me, but maybe to the perp, it served a purpose. I mean the guy cut someone's eye out. He's clearly avenging something."

"Maybe, but why keep the eye?"

"Souvenir? We've seen lots of cases where the killer takes some memento when it's a personal case."

"I don't care how much I love or hate someone, I would never take their eye home with me and sit it on my bedside table or something. That's just screwed up."

"Well, that's good to know. If I piss you off, I'll get to keep both of my eyes. I knew there was a reason that I loved you, your undying compassion," Elliot said sarcastically, with a grin, "I wonder if Munch and Fin found anything yet?"

"Probably not. My bet is that Munch as turned this into some big conspiracy and has bothered Fin about it the entire time. You know, 'eye for an eye', Hammurabi's code, past governments coming to rule us all. Dinner says that he has at least some theory involving that."

"I'm not taking that bet, I know I'll lose."

Inside the precinct, they found Munch and Fin huddled around one computer researching the phrase diligently.

"So Munch, you got any good theories about this case?" Olivia said, winking at Elliot.

"No, we haven't been able to come up with anything. No M.O.s, nothing."

"So Hammurabi's code isn't coming back to control the government as we know it?"

"No, that's way too simple. If someone was going to overthrow the government, they wouldn't use a code that would not be able to be successfully infiltrated into today's modern society. In fact, I think..."

"Its ok Munch, I was just kidding," Elliot interrupted him.

"Don't give him any ideas, man," Fin replied shaking his head.

About that time, Cragen reappeared in the room. "Ok, so what did we find out so far?"

"Nothing on the M.O."

"Nothing on witnesses."

"Body's at the M.E.'s so hopefully we can get an ID soon."

"Ok," Cragen spoke again, "Fin, Munch, why don't you get a picture of the body and take it around to see if anyone knows her. Elliot, Olivia, you guys..."

"Excuse me. I'm sorry to interrupt, but I have a package for Olivia Benson," a man said, holding a small box.

"I'm Olivia Benson, but I wasn't expecting a package. That's weird," she said, taking the small box.

"Yeah, the whole thing was kinda weird. A man approached me as I was walking by and said he'd give me $50 if I'd deliver this up to you. He said he would do it himself, but that it was an early Valentine's Day gift from a secret admirer and he didn't want to give himself away yet."

"Thank you," she said putting the small package on her desk. The man turned and walked out of the precinct.

"You seeing someone else, Liv?" Elliot questioned, attempting to fain jealousy, "cause that's not from me."

With that everyone laughed, and Olivia decided to open the package. She tore the tape from across the top of the box and opened the flaps to reveal a small gladlock container.

"Oh my god!" she said putting it down on her desk, and stepping away from it.

"What the hell is that," Fin said getting eye level with the container, "it looks like an eyeball. Was there anything else in the box?"

Elliot picked up the cardboard box and pulled out a small typed note.

"_An eye for an eye, Olivia. Hopefully you got my message that I wrote earlier. I had to rape and murder a girl just to ensure you got the message that I'm serious. You took something important from me, so now I will do the same to you_. _So far, two deaths rest on your shoulders. How many more, until I feel avenged? Enjoy your gift."_

"You okay?" Munch questioned Olivia.

"Yeah. He said two deaths. The girl and who else? That girl died because of me."

"No, that girl died because we have a psycho on our hands," Cragen said, patting her on the shoulder, "what's everyone standing around for. I gave you all orders. Lets get on this."


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: Will they ever be mine? Probably not. I apologize for such a long delay, I had an idea of where I wanted this story to go, but no idea on how to get there. I guess one good thing about the season finale, despite the whole Elliot and Kathy thing, is that I finally had an inspiration to continue my story!

Olivia quickly turned and headed out the door of the squad room, seeking refuge in the cribs. She sat down on one of the beds, putting her hands over her face, willing the sting of threatening tears to go away.

"Are you ok?" Elliot said, leaning on the doorframe of the room.

"Yeah...yeah, I'm fine," she said as she rubbed her hands over her eyes.

"It's just the two of us in here right now, you don't have to put on the hard ass act for me. I don't want to know if Detective Benson is ok, because I know that she will be...I want to know if you, Liv, are ok. Talk to me, please," he said sitting down beside her on the bed.

"No, is that what you want to hear? That I almost lost it downstairs, that I'm weak and emotional? Do you think that I like causing people's deaths? I know that its not me doing it, but its because of me, so I still feel that guilt, and don't even tell me that I shouldn't feel that way, because we both know how you felt after the whole Gitano thing. You blamed yourself so much that we almost lost our partnership for good."

"That was different."

"No, that was the same and you know it. You didn't kill that boy, he did, but you still felt guilty. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a case to work on."

She stood up from the bed as Elliot grabbed her arm, "Liv, wait,"

"Don't touch me, got it?"

With that, Olivia wrenched her arm free and stormed out of the room and back to her desk, where Cragen was looking over another package.

"Another one?"

"Afraid so, just came in."

"Do I even want to know what's inside this one?"

"Another eye. No one's reported a crime scene fitting this description yet, so for now, I'm going to have Warner run some tests on this to see if we can ID the vic."

Later that afternoon, Munch and Fin had returned with nothing from the first crime scene, but an investigation of the second crime scene had produced a substantial lead. Although the perp was good at covering his tracks, he had left a couple of hairs behind, enabling DNA tests to be done. A couple of days had gone by without the perp attacking again, when Cragen delivered the results of the test. "Ok guys, DNA's back on the Hammurabi murderer, it belongs to a male and that male is a partial match to Blake Carson."

"That's impossible, he's dead!" Fin said.

"Apparently he's come back to haunt us. You know, in certain religions, the afterlife..."

"Shut up John" the group simultaneously responded.

"Wait, Melinda only found that it was a partial match. I was a partial match to my brother, so this has to be one of his closer relatives."

"Does he have any brothers, cousins?"

All four detectives spent the next hour researching Blake Carson's family tree, when Elliot finally came across something.

"He has a brother in New Jersey"

"Let's go" Olivia said jumping up from her seat.

As the pulled up to the house, they found Brian Carson sitting on the front porch with a gun in his hand.

"I was wondering when you would come," he said sneering, "so you got my gifts, right?"

"Put the gun down Brian."

"Not a chance. I didn't want to kill those people. I wanted to kill you, for what you did to my brother. I was just practicing on them, so I would know exactly what I wanted to do to you. Didn't you pick up on the fact that both the women looked exactly like you?"

"You're sick Brian, and you're never going to get away with this."

"I am, Detective Benson, and by the end of the day, I'll be mailing your eye to your captain. I'm sure he'll appreciate something so brown and gorgeous."

Luckily, their backup had managed to sneak in the back of his house and right as he pulled the trigger to shoot at Olivia, they shot him in the leg, bringing him down, causing him to drop his gun. The officers rushed over, cuffed him, and took him to the hospital to receive medical attention before being well enough to be transported back to New York.

Elliot and Olivia arrived back at their precinct, exhausted, with the promise that their perp would be transported back to New York City in a couple of days.

"I'm going to take a long hot bath when we get home," Olivia said, stretching out her back muscles.

"I think we should just order some takeout for dinner. I'm too tired to..." Elliot stopped mid sentence as he spotted his ex-wife sitting at his desk.

"Elliot," she said quietly

"Kathy, is everything ok?" he said approaching her, his brow furrowing with slight worry.

"I need to talk to you."

"ok", he led her into the cribs, " the kids alright?"

"they're fine," she said letting out a little sigh.

"but you're not?"

"Elliot, I know what we did a couple of months ago was a one time thing when we here visiting, but ..." she looked at the floor, hoping for an escape, "I'm pregnant."

"You're...?"

"Pregnant, Elliot, pregnant. What are we going to do? I mean, I live in South Carolina now, the kids are happy there, but I don't want our baby to grow up without a father."

"Are you sure it's mine?"

"Yeah, there hasn't been anyone else in the past 6 months at least," she said her eyes filling with tears.

"Shit, are you sure you're pregnant?"

"Yes, Elliot, how many times do I have to say it? I'm pregnant and you're the father," she said raising her voice, "come home with me Elliot, come to South Carolina, we'll be close to my parents and the rest of the kids are there. I need you to take responsibility for your part in this and come home." She knew using the 'responsibility card' would work with him. No matter how many times they fought, he was always responsible when it came to family matters. "Of course this is going to throw a slight kink in your relationship with Olivia, oh yeah, Kathleen told me about that, but I think , my ex-wife's having my baby, will go over nicely," she said with a little smirk.

"How can you be so sure that I'll come home with you and be a family again?"

"Because I know you, you'll do the right thing. I'm staying at the Hilton. Here's my room number, and I have my cell with me, I'm leaving in the morning to go back home, and I hope you're on that flight with me."

She turned and left the room, leaving him to contemplate why his world had suddenly fallen to pieces.

After she had been gone for a couple of minutes, Olivia came into the cribs in search of Elliot who was lying on one of the beds staring, fingers crossed behind his head, staring at the ceiling. The two sat for a couple of moments in silence, when Olivia finally broke the barrier.

"El, everything ok with Kathy and the kids?"

"Yeah, Kathy's fine and so are the kids. She just wanted to tell me some news she found out."

"Well, what did she find out?"

About that time, Kathy walked back into the room, ignoring Olivia, and tossed a sonogram on his chest, " oh yeah, I thought you might like to see proof of our baby," then turned abruptly and left.

Olivia stood up, silently staring at the place Kathy once stood.

Finally, after a few moments, she remembered how to speak, "Baby? Your baby?"

"Olivia, don't start, now's really..."

"If you're going to say that now's really not a good time, I suggest you find something else, because if she is pregnant with your child, now is definitely a good time, and I sure as hell hope for your sake that it's not yours," Olivia shouted standing directly over him.

"Its mine. I slept with her before you came home from Oregon, before the whole Dani thing. She and the kids were here for her neice's wedding, and while the kids were out catching up with old friends, well...you know."

"No, actually I don't know, why don't you enlighten me, Stabler," she spat out his name.

"I invited her over just to see how things were going, and one thing led to another and now we're having baby Stabler number 5."

"So what are you going to do?"

"Do you even have to ask me that?"

"Elliot, we're living together. I gave up my apartment when I moved in with you. You're seriously just going to up and leave."

"I made a mistake and now I have to pay the consequences. I made a mistake 20 years ago when I got her pregnant the first time and I took responsibility for it. Do I regret my kids? No, never. Will I regret this one? Of course not. I'm a responsible man, and even if its not what I necessarily want to do, it's what needs to be done. You've always known that my kids are my first priority, that goes without saying, and now that includes baby number 5," he said standing up, only inches from her face.

"What about me?"

"I'm so sorry, I really am. I wish there was a better way. I've wanted to be at home with my kids ever since the divorce, and now Kathy wants me to be there for them. This is my chance at being a family again, at righting my wrongs. Look, I'll pay any deposits you might have to put down if you choose to move to a different apartment, and I'll hire a moving company to box it all up for you, you can have any of the furniture that you want, I won't need any of it. I don't love Kathy, I love you, and this doesn't change that. It's always been you, Liv, please remember that."

"How can you even say that? You're leaving. You're giving up our partnership, our friendship, our relationship, everything that matters to me and you think that paying for me to move and donating your furniture to the cause will make it better? If you have to go, then go, but don't sugar coat it like its going to be ok," she walked away from him, standing with her arms crossed looking out the window, as tears ran down her cheeks.

"Well, then I won't. Good bye Olivia," he whispered as he turned and walked out the door.

Taking a deep breath to collect himself, Elliot knocked on Cragen's door.

"Come in. Elliot, everything ok?"

"Captain, I need a transfer, effective immediately to South Carolina."

"Whoa, wait everything has been running wonderfully around here. Why the sudden urge to jump ship?"

"Kathy, sir. Kathy's pregnant, and I'm the father. She wants me to move to South Carolina to be with her and the kids."

"Does Olivia know?"

"Yes sir."

"And?"

"And there's nothing to discuss sir. I have a responsibility to my children, one which I am going to fulfill. Olivia is strong, she will be fine."

"When do you leave?"

"Tomorrow if possible."

Cragen sat, staring at his desk, and slowly nodded, "Go tell Munch and Fin, and take the rest of the day off to get your business in order. I'll call you in the morning with your reassignment," he slowly stood from his desk, "you're a good man, Elliot. Congratulations, we'll miss you," he said extending his hand for a handshake.

"Thank you sir, I'll miss you guys too. Good bye."

Elliot exited the office, when Munch approached him, "Olivia just left crying, maybe you should go check on her."

"It's ok, I already know what's wrong. Guys, I'm leaving SVU. Today is my last day actually."

"Wait, what?"

"How long have you known you were leaving?"

"Where are you going?"

"You're not serious, are you?" Munch and Fin bombarded him with questions.

"Sorry guys. Kathy stopped by today and told me that she is pregnant with our baby. I'm going home with her to South Carolina to take care of the family."

"You son of a bitch," Fin said, his fist colliding with Elliot's jaw.

"I deserved that," Elliot said, rubbing his hand along his face.

"No, what you deserve is..." Fin said rushing toward him in a fury, only to be intercepted by Munch.

"Fin, back off man, just cool it. What about you and Olivia?"

Elliot shook his head, "take care of her guys, she's strong, she'll be ok. I'll e-mail you guys every once and a while to let you know what's going on."

"So that's it? There's no other option?"

"No, I wish there was, but..."

Elliot spent the next half-hour packing up his desk and his locker. He approached the door of the squad room one last time, boxes in hand, to say goodbye to the guys.

"I'll see you guys around."

"Take care, Elliot"

"Bye."

The next morning, Elliot finished packing his personal belongings, a sense of loneliness washing over him with every item of Olivia's that he saw. She hadn't come home the night before, and the only any information any of his friends would give him as to her whereabouts was that she was safe. His plan was to leave all the furniture there, taking only his clothes and personal mementos. As he stepped into the bathroom to pack his toiletries, his eyes filled with tears as he caught glance of her pink razor sitting on the edge of the sink next to his, her bathrobe, his toothbrush, his deodorant, her lotion, all nestled in with one another, completely in sync, as their lives had been until yesterday. He picked up the can of shaving cream off the cabinet and threw it at the mirror shattering the glass.

"I can't do this," he said sliding down the wall until he was seated on the cool tile floor, sobs controlling his body. After a few minutes, he pulled himself together, grabbed his luggage, and took one last look around the apartment. He closed and locked the door, sliding the key underneath to the other side for Olivia to turn into the super when she moved out, and walked down the hallway toward the exit, never turning back.


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: Congratulations to Mariska on her Emmy nomination! I saw the announcement this morning and thought it would be wrong if I didn't celebrate with a new chapter! Mr. Wolf is still the man in charge, but I told Elliot that I'd nominate him for an Emmy if he came to work for me and brought Olivia, so he's trying to talk her into it!

Olivia lay on Casey's couch for the second night in a row, cocooned in a soft quilt, allowing the occasional tear to run down her face. She stared silently at the floor where the moonlight created intricate patterns as it peaked through the blinds and danced through the room. For the first time in her life, Olivia was beyond hurt, she was something that didn't even have a name. The pain, the anger, the multiple emotions swirling throughout her body, only complicated it more.

"Liv, you awake?" Casey tiptoed into the living room, wrapped in a terrycloth robe.

"Yeah," she sighed, hoping that Casey wouldn't push the issue.

"Is there anything I can get you, some water? Kleenex?"

"If you could just stop hovering, that'd be great, thanks."

"Look, I know that you're upset, but you don't have to take it out on me, ok?" she said kneeling in front of the couch, "It hurts me to see you hurting. It pisses me off to see Elliot treat you the way he did...I just...I don't know how to help you, so I do the only think I know how, I hover," she whispered as she sat down on the far end of the couch near Olivia's feet.

"You can't help me, no one can help me, but me. I think I've decided to leave."

"You're leaving? Right now?"

"No, not right now, tomorrow, or as soon as possible. There's no way that I'm going to be able to continue to work at the 1-6, to look at that empty desk across from me, and still be ok. I need to start over, to become me again, without him."

"You'll still be around though, right, you're just taking a leave of absence or something?"

"No, I think I'm going to go somewhere different, Maine maybe. I had all day today to research it while you were at work, and it seems like a nice change."

"Do they even have a sex crimes unit in Maine?"

"Yeah, it's not as well defined as ours; they could use the help."

The two sat in the dark, in silence for a few minutes, until Casey spoke again, shaking her head.

"Don't run again."

"What?"

"Don't run again. Every time you're scared, upset, or don't know what to do, you run. For once, show some of that strength that you have inside of you and stay and fight. I know that you're too stubborn to let someone else control what you do with your life, so don't let him."

"You must not know me very well if you think that's what I'm doing. If I stay, it will kill me. I am controlling my own life. It's my decision."

"So that's it? I'm not going to be able to talk you out of this?"

"I'm sorry Case, really. As soon as I feel like I can come back, I will. New York's my home. Always has been, always will be. I won't stay gone forever."

Casey just nodded her head, trying to avoid the tears that would come eventually, "get some sleep, Liv."

The rest of the night, both friends tossed and turned, dreading the events of the next day.

Four months later, nothing had changed drastically. Olivia was still working for SVU in Maine, Elliot was still working for SVU in South Carolina with his ever-growing pregnant ex-wife. Maureen, Kathleen, Lizzie, and Dickie were spending two weeks with their cousins in Tennessee in hopes that Elliot and Kathy could have some much needed alone time before Stabler number 5 was born.

"Hey Kath, I'm home early," Elliot walked into the living room of their one story beach home. Although Elliot had slept on the couch every night since moving here with his family, he was trying to make himself love her again, and made every effort to improve their relationship, including being home in time for dinner. As Elliot walked into the kitchen, he heard his wife and a male voice talking on the back porch.

"Kathy, its not fair that you didn't tell me about the baby. I understand if you don't want to be with me, but I want to be here for this child."

"Kenneth, you don't understand..."

"Then make me understand. Tell me why you felt that you had to hide this from me. I love you Kathy. I wanted to marry you. I still do, but this will never work if we're not honest with each other."

"I love you too but I ...uh..it was...um...so confusing though. I went to New York and seeing Elliot again with the kids made me want to be a family again at the time, and then I slept with him, but I already told you all of that. About a week after you broke up with me for all of that, I found out I was about a month pregnant. I knew it was too soon to be Elliot's, but you were so furious with me and by that point had left, and I didn't feel like I could tell you," she said with tears rolling down her cheeks, "a couple of weeks later, Kathleen told me that Elliot was seeing Olivia, which just made me more upset. Here I was facing pregnancy alone, while he was dating his partner. I missed him and I just wanted stability. I wanted my baby to have a mother and a father, so I told Elliot that the baby was his. He moved back here with me, and the rest is history."

"My aunt was sick..."

By this point, Elliot was red, and his fists were clenched with anger. "Actually I think its mine turn to talk, Kenneth," Elliot interrupted as he stepped in between the two of them on the porch, "Kath, do you know how much I gave up for you? My job, my relationship, I moved to another fuckin' state! You knew that I would care for my kids and you used it against me!"

"El, I'm sorry, please understand why I did this. I wanted you to be here for the kids. I wanted a family again. I was tired of being alone, please."

"I'm going to go ahead and go now," Kenneth said making a thumb gesture toward the door.

"Stay" "No" Elliot and Kathy said at the same time.

"Ok... I'll just be over here then," he said heading for the edge of the porch.

"What are you going to tell our kids? Oh sorry guys, mom slept with another guy, but blamed it on dad? Is Kenneth really the father?" Elliot asked as he rubbed a hand over his head.

"Yeah, he is."

"How could you do this to me? How could you be so selfish?"

"Elliot, I...I'm sorry."

"So, what happens now, do I stay here while you and Kenneth play mom and dad to the baby? Do I go back to New York? Oh, I'm sure the guys would love to hear this. Hey, I broke Liv's heart, and abandoned all of you because my ex-wife was pregnant with another man's baby, but hell, I'm back now, so can we just forget about all of it? And you," he said turning to face Kenneth, "who do you think you are that you can just sleep with her and then leave her when she makes a mistake? She was pregnant with your baby!"

"I didn't know. I tried to e-mail her, to call her, but I never got a response. I couldn't leave my aunt, I was the only family she had. She needed constant care, but she passed a couple of weeks ago. As soon as I got things settled, I came home and came straight here, to find a pregnant Kathy," he said adjusting his glasses."

"I need some time to think this over, Kathy, Kenneth, you two decide whatever you need to, but I need some space to decide what's best for me right now," Elliot said as he turned and walked off the back porch and headed down the beach, along the water's edge.


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimer: wow, horray for me! Two chapters in two days! It's amazing how much a person can get done when they actually have some free time! Dick said that he'll give Elliot and Olivia two Emmys each if they stay with him instead of working for me. So they're not mine.

After walking for about 45 minutes, Elliot sat down on a large rock, and watched the water wash up onto the beach, taking away some sand every time it returned to the sea. Right now, Kathy was his sea, taking a piece of him every time she washed over. She had slowly eroded him to a skeleton of who he used to be. He had missed his family and she had taken advantage of him. Now he was that sand-worn skeleton without a family, without Olivia, without anything that mattered to him. He knew that he'd return to New York, how could he not? As much as he loved his kids, he couldn't bear to stick around for the Kenneth and Kathy reunion. His mind slowly drifted to Olivia. What was she doing right then? Was she sitting in the squad room drinking coffee with Munch and Fin? Did she even still work at SVU? In the few times that he had talked to Cragen, he had not asked about Olivia, and she was never mentioned, it was just too hard to think about.

"Shit, Liv," he whispered to himself, "I'm so sorry," he admitted, silently apologizing for everything he had put her through over the past months.

After his legs had started to fall asleep from sitting on the hard surface for such a long period of time, he trudged back up the beach, toward the second house, he would no longer share with his kids.

The sun had begun to set over the ocean, painting everything in its orange glow. Out behind the house, stood Dickie, throwing his baseball into the air and catching it again and again.

"Dad, umm...hey, why don't you stay out here with me, you know...um...," he stuttered around, doing anything to stall his father from going in the house where Kenneth was sitting on the couch, like he had never left.

"It's ok, Dickie, I already know about Kenneth, but I appreciate it."

"Are you mad that you and mom are having a baby, but she's hanging out with him?"

"No, actually Mom and I need to talk to you and your sisters, can you come inside?"

"Sure, what about?"

Elliot just shook his head, as if to say, you'll find out in a minute, and headed into the kitchen.

"Elliot, you're back," Kathy responded as she finished pouring herself a glass of juice, and set the bottle back in the refrigerator.

"Yeah, can we all go in the living room and talk?"

"Sure," she said putting her hand on his arm, "did you decide what you wanted to do?"

"Not all of me wants to do it, but I've decided what's best, I think."

Kathy, Elliot, and Dickie went into the living room were the girls were watching tv and Kenneth was uncomfortably shifting in his seat, nervous at the whole situation.

"Girls, could you turn that off for a second," Kathy asked sitting down by Kenneth.

A silence fell over the room as Maureen, Kathleen, and Elizabeth looked from their mom, to Kenneth, to their dad, at each other, and back to their mom and Kenneth again.

"It's ok," Dickie broke the silence, "Dad already knows."

"Actually that's what your mother and I want to talk to you guys about. See there was a...," he stole a glance at Kathy, "...a misunderstanding about the baby, and the baby is actually Kenneth's. I was shocked at first, but now I think that its best for everyone involved that Kenneth is the father."

"Are you serious?" Kathleen sat, wide-eyed, "that's not your baby in there?"

"I'm really sorry guys, but your father is right, and I agree that Kenneth should be a part of this family, and a father to this baby."

"So will you still live here too?" Lizzie asked.

"No," he sighed, letting out the breath of air that he had been holding, waiting for that question to arise, "you guys are old enough that you don't need me every day, like a baby would. I think I'm going to move back to New York, but like before you all have an open invitation to stay with me whenever you want to."

"You miss Liv," Dickie replied; not really a question or a statement.

"I do. I'm so torn because I don't want you to think that she means more to me than you all, because nothing is more important than you guys, nothing. I guess in my mind, this is the best way to have it all. I'll still get to see you when you come to visit, I'll be able to have my friends and job back, and hopefully, I can get Liv back. I don't know though, just say the word and I'll stay here. I'll get a smaller house on the other side of town or something, so I'll be nearby..."

"...Dad, you're rambling," Maureen interrupted, "we know that you love us ,and that you're just trying to do something that works for everyone."

"So when are you planning on flying back?" Kathy asked the question that was on all of her children's minds.

"In a couple of days, I need to talk to Cragen and try to get all the details figured out first. You know what, this has been a long night, why don't we wait and talk about it some more tomorrow, when I have more concrete answers...so anyone up for ice cream?" he grinned.

Back in Maine, Olivia was spending another long night finishing paperwork at her desk, willing her mind to avoid the ever present subject of Elliot. She finally lost the battle, and gave in to thinking about what he was doing at that moment. She stole a glance at the clock, 11:18. He was probably going to bed. He'd be in his boxers, no shirt, his muscular frame sprawling across the sheets. He'd have the look of sex, regardless of whether he and Kathy had done it that day, because Elliot Stabler and sex were synonyms, very pleasurable synonyms. She felt a tingle between her legs as she thought of the nights that he was hers, and that this brooding synonym of sex would pleasure her for hours at a time, his firm hands running up and down her body, as if it was a foreign landscape. Feeling guilty for those thoughts, she pushed them to the back of her mind, and began to think about the guys at the 1-6. Fin's birthday would be coming up soon and everyone would go out drinking together, like they had for the past 5 years. She wondered if Munch had threatened to retire again. She wondered if they had heard from Elliot. Although she spoke to her former captain occasionally, it was unspoken agreement that Elliot was never mentioned. It was just too hard to think about. Her memories of her former life were interrupted by the sound of her current partner's voice.

"Go home Olivia."

"I will, I just need to finish up these files,"she replied, rubbing her eyes.

"No, I mean home, as in New York. I know that's what you're thinking about. Every time you start thinking about your home, you get this certain look in your eyes."

"Maybe it's the look of sleep deprivation."

He gave her a knowing glance, "you think you can lie to me after 5 months and I don't know, try again."

She sighed, "I don't think I'm ready to go back yet, it's just not the right time."

"Maybe," he shrugged, "maybe not, just think about it. I'll see you on Monday."

"Night." Maybe it was time to start thinking about going home.


	18. Chapter 18

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N: Sorry that this took so long. I'm disappointed in the level of my creative writing abilities, and have not had the inspiration to continue until now.

Faced with the decision of whether or not to return home, Olivia settled down onto the couch cushions in her small apartment, with a beer in one hand and a blanket from her bed in the other. What her partner had said earlier had really gotten her thinking. That was the problem, she was thinking, thinking too much about her old life. True, she had never endangered any member of the squad, or herself, and she was not reckless or careless on or off the clock, but in her profession, it only takes one time of not being focused to truly fuck up, and that was not something she wanted to do.

'Can I even go back?' Olivia thought, tucking her feet in underneath the blanket, 'I'd look like such an idiot for leaving again.' As she looked around the room, taking in what few decorations she had, she picked up the bottled and wiped the condensation off the chilled glass, and went to take another sip.

"Shit," she mumbled to herself when a slosh of the beer missed her mouth and cascaded onto her t-shirt.  
She sat her beer on the coffee table, unwrapped herself from the blanket, and walked over to her dresser, stripping out of the wet shirt and pulling another one out of her dresser. As she placed her hands through the sleeves of the worn shirt, she caught sight of something in the back of the drawer. She pulled the shirt over her head, and reached into the back to retrieve the picture. It was a picture of her and Elliot, one of her favorites, taken before everything became so complicated between them. Munch had been screwing around with the new cameras that the squad purchased to keep in the sedans for evidence purposes. Olivia and Elliot had been making fun of him, and were mid laugh when he snapped the candid. It was the only reminder of Elliot that she had taken to Maine with her, and she hadn't bothered to take it out of the dresser until now.

"God, El, why did you have to go and ruin everything? We were so good together. Everything was easy and simple, now everything's so fucked up, I don't even know where to begin to start sorting it out."

By this time, a few tears had escaped and had tracked down her face. She violently swiped them away. Weakness was not something she embraced, and crying over any man was not something Olivia Benson was going to continue to do. No matter how bad it hurt, she was still the 'take no shit' woman she had always been.

"That's it," she said aloud, slamming the dresser drawer shut, "I'm moving back. I'm not going to let my feelings run my life. I'm done playing this stupid game and pretending to be happy here just so I don't have to be faced with reminders of Elliot. If he wants to go have a family with his wife, fine. If he wants to have twenty more kids with her, even better. I don't need him to move on with my life. I am Olivia Benson, SVU detective and I am going home. Screw this city, screw this shitty little apartment, screw pretending to enjoy my co-workers, screw it all!"

With that, she ripped the picture into pieces and threw it in the trash. A small sense of relief washed over her as she finished her therapeutic rant. Olivia grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch, neglecting the beer, and headed toward her bed for what she hoped would be a restful night of sleep for the first time since she had arrived. She crawled under the blankets and felt peaceful with her decision. It would be hard to be back at the 16 for the first couple of days, especially since she hadn't set foot in there since she left after Elliot told her about Kathy's pregnancy, but she knew that it was what was best for her life.

The next morning, nerves woke Olivia up at 5:30 in the morning, well before the sun would be shining through her window. She laid in her bed and stared up at the textured ceiling, making sure that this was what she wanted, because as soon as she asked her captain for a transfer back, there would be no more leaving. A strong sense of deja vu came over her as she flashed back to the time she returned from being undercover in Oregon. She couldn't keep showing up at Manhattan SVU then leaving whenever something went wrong. This had to be for good. She showered, got dressed, and took her time brewing a cup of coffee before she had to leave. Olivia knew that her captain would be in around 7:00 and no one else would get there until 7:30, leaving her the perfect window of opportunity to talk it over with him, alone.

She walked up to her captain's open door and gently rapped her knuckles on the hard wood, announcing her presence.  
"Detective Benson, you're here early."

"Yes, sir. There was something that I wanted to talk to you about."

"Is everything ok? Your partner's not being a pain in the ass is he?"

"No, sir. I've actually been doing a lot of thinking, and I feel that it's best for the squad if I return to the 16."

"Your old precinct?"

"Yes. I miss it. I came here for a change of pace, but I've realized that I don't want to change everything in my life. I'm sorry, sir."

"Anything in particular you want to talk about?"

"It's personal. I'm sorry for the hassle, though."

"Are you sure this is what you want? We can't have our detectives playing musical precincts every time something goes wrong. It costs us money, time, and energy every time we transfer someone."

"I know that sir. I've made some mistakes in my life, but I always end up going back to Manhattan. I know that's where I need to be, and I will keep my personal affairs separate from my work. If I need to leave again, I will leave the job altogether."

"I know you will keep everything the way it needs to be, and I'm not saying that you can't ever transfer again, but it needs to be more permanent than six months."

"I understand. I'm sorry."

"Don't be Benson. You're a good cop, that's why we were happy to have you at our precinct, and I'm sure your precinct will be happy to have you back. When would you like this to be effective?"

"As soon as possible."

Her captain nodded his head, "That can be arranged. Anything else?"

"No"

"Ok, then get back to work since you're still on my watch," he said, with a hint of a smile.

A couple of hours and a personal phone call from Cragen later, Olivia was reinstated as an SVU detective in her old squad. She went home and packed her car with all the belongings that she had brought with her, thankful that she had opted to rent a furnished apartment and leave her apartment in Manhattan set up the way it was. She pulled onto the interstate, nervous, but excited to be heading home.

Meanwhile, around 4:45 in the afternoon, the phone on Cragen's desk rang.  
"Cragen."

"Captain, it's Elliot," he said hesitantly, waiting for a reply.

"How is everything down there? Kathy and the kids doing alright?"

"Funny story actually, long story short, the baby's not mine, and I asked my captain to put in a transfer back to the 16 and I was just calling to give you a head's up."

"Wait a second. Kathy was not pregnant with your baby? Then who's kid is she carrying around?"

"Like I said, Cap, it's a long, boring story, but the important part is that I'm coming back."

"Elliot, have you talked to Olivia since you left?"

"No, I haven't. I figured that I'd meet up with her when I got there."

Cragen sighed, "I don't know if that's such a good idea. She's only now coming back."

"Back from where?"

"Maine. El, she was heartbroken when you left. She didn't want to stick around and relive everything day after day. She called me this afternoon in fact, and said that she was ready to come back and her first day back would be the day after tomorrow, but knowing her, I have a feeling I'll see her at some point tomorrow."

"Not to sound childish, but is that really fair? She gets to come back because she managed to call you a couple of hours before I did. Since when did our precinct become first come, first serve? Like I said, I already put in the request, so I guess if you don't want me there, you can deny it."

"It's not that simple and you know it. You and Olivia had one of the best solve rates around, both here and at your current precincts. I know that someone would question my reasoning for not allowing you to return, especially since I have a vacant spot on the squad, and I don't know if I could deny your request while maintaining the secrecy of your and Olivia's past relationship, which as you well know, could cost you your job if the wrong people found out."

"I know that," Elliot said with a sigh.

"Like I said, I'm going to have to approve your transfer unless you decide to withdraw your request. You don't have to make a decision now, but hopefully, you'll at least think about what I said. If you plan to return, when would your first day back be?"

"Monday, and I already know what I want to do. I want to come home."

"Well, once something gets in your head, there's no getting it out, so I guess I'll see you on Monday, Detective."

"Cragen?" Elliot asked, hesitantly.

"Yeah," he replied, scrubbing his hand over his face.

"Thanks."

"I'll see you later, Elliot."

With that, Cragen hung up the phone and proceeded to attempt to figure out how he was going to tell Olivia that the one person that caused her to rearrange her entire life, was coming back to the same precinct.

Cragen had opted to avoid telling anyone about Elliot's return, until he spoke to Olivia about it, and only after she was settled back into her routine.

As Cragen had guessed, as soon as Olivia had arrived back in Manhattan, she was back at work, and had been working nonstop since then, trying to get caught up on all the latest cases. It was now Friday morning, and Cragen knew that by the end of the day, he would have to let Olivia know about Elliot's return on Monday, something he was not looking forward to. For now, that thought would have to wait, because the search warrant for their suspect had come through and it was Munch and Olivia's turn to catch.

"Olivia, Munch, we've got the search warrant for Jake Simms. You two get over to his apartment and see what you can find."

"Got it, Cap." Munch said has he and Olivia headed out the door, toward where the sedan was parked.

"Fin, get down to the lab and see what we've got on the Moore case, results should be in by now."

After ensuring that his Detectives were all taking care of their perspective jobs, he retreated back to his office to complete some paperwork, only to be interrupted by a knock at the door half an hour later.

"Captain, where is everybody?"

"Elliot, I thought you weren't coming in until Monday."

"I hadn't planned on it, but I found an apartment easily, and my furniture is being shipped from storage, directly there, so I thought I'd get a jump start on the job."

"Well, you just missed everybody. Olivia and Munch are working with a search warrant and Fin is looking over some evidence samples. As soon as Fin gets back from the lab, you can work with him."

"How did Olivia take the news? I mean is it ok that I'm here?" he said rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet, unsure of himself.

"Actually, Elliot," Cragen started off, trying to decide how to tell him that she didn't know yet, when a call came through on the radio.

"This is Detective Munch, requesting backup. Suspect fleeing on foot going north from his house, last seen wearing black shirt and jeans. Officers unable to continue pursuit at this time ."

"Cap, didn't you say that Munch was working with..." Elliot began, stopping to allow Cragen to concentrate on calling John's cell phone.

"John, what happened? What's going on?"

"Asshole tried to run, shoved Olivia down in the process. She fell backwards and hit her head on a rusty drain pipe protruding from the steps. It gave her a pretty good gash in the back of her head. She's dizzy, and in need of stitches, but insists that she doesn't need medical attention."

"Alright, take her to Bellevue, and tell her getting checked out is not an option."

"Okay, bye."

"Captain?" Elliot questioned, "What's going on?"

"Olivia's been hurt. Munch is taking her to the hospital."

"You said Bellevue, right?" he said, retreating out the door.

"Elliot, maybe that's not," Cragen attempted to stop him, but soon realized that no words would stand between Elliot checking on Olivia.

"Detective Stabler, Manhattan SVU, I'm looking for Detective Benson," Elliot said, holding out his badge to the receptionist.

"What did you say her first name was sir?"

"Olivia Benson," he stated in an authoritative tone.

"She's in exam room four."

Elliot headed off toward the exam rooms, almost knocking Munch out of the way.

"Wait...wha...Elliot? What the heck are you doing here?" Munch replied to a retreating figure, as Elliot went in search of Olivia's room.

Elliot quickly pushed through the swinging doors and walked down the hall until he found exam room four. The door was mostly closed, leaving a gap of a couple of inches, between the door and the frame. He gently rapped his knuckles on the door, and proceeded to push it open.

"Come in." Her voice was raspy and strained, and he could hear her let out a sign.

"Liv, you ok?" he replied standing at the foot of her bed, studying her appearance, and how small she looked in her blue hospital gown.

"What the hell?" she laid her head back against the pillow and closed her eyes, "I was starting to think this day couldn't get any worse, I was wrong. What are you doing here?"

"Captain didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what, Elliot. I'm clearly not in a position to enjoy guessing games with you right now."

"I moved back. I couldn't handle not being near you."

"You sure have a funny way of showing it, moving away to be with your wife," Olivia raised her voice, but continued to keep her eyes closed, "I can't deal with this right now. My head feels like it's going to explode, the painkillers are making me sick to my stomach, and I'm pretty sure that before the night is over, they're going to have to shave part of my hair to stitch me up."

"Ok, we don't have to talk about anything right now," he said, moving to sit in a chair next to her bed, "we can just sit here."

"You don't get it, do you?" Olivia opened her eyes, sending a cold stare in his direction, "I don't want you here. I don't want you at work. I don't want you at all. Why do you think you can just come and go in my life as you please? I'm not your little fuck-buddy anymore, and I won't let you treat me like that."

Elliot blinked hard, in hopes of reigning in the few tears that had pooled in his eyes, "you don't really think that, do you? That I used you for sex? That you were just some senseless lay? Because if you do, then you've really had me fooled. I never once 'fucked' you. What we had means so much more to me than that."

"I call it as I see it." She shrugged her shoulders, and again closed her eyes, signaling that the conversation was finished.

"Son of a bitch, Liv, don't do this," he mumbled, rubbing his hand over his face, "I screwed up. I'm sorry for that. Everyday, I'm sorry for the mistakes I've made with us, but don't make what was between us worthless."

Olivia sighed, "What do you want me to do, Elliot? I haven't heard from you since you told me that your ex-wife was having your baby. I move home less than a week ago, and suddenly you're back in my life with no warning. I'm sorry if I'm a little less-than-overjoyed to see you."

"It's not my baby."

"What?"

"The baby, it's not mine. Kathy had a boyfriend when she got pregnant. It's not mine, and in my defense, Don was supposed to talk to you about me returning to work, so that you would have some warning."

"How thoughtful of you," she sarcastically bit back, "must be that Catholic guilt hard at work."

"Ok, I get it. You're pissed at me, which you have every right to be, but I'm trying here. I don't know where to go from here, but I do know one thing. I'm not leaving. You can yell, scream, and throw a fit if you decide, but I'm going to stay here with you."

"What I want is for you to stop pretending that everything is going to be ok, and just leave me alone."

"I'll stop bothering you," he said, standing up from his chair and pacing back toward the door, pretending to read some poster on the wall, "but I'm not leaving."

Before Olivia could respond, an orderly opened the door. "Detective Benson?"

"Yeah"

"Hi, I'm Steve. Looks like they've got you signed up for a CAT scan and an MRI," he said flipping through her chart, "Nasty fall?"

"Something like that."

"How are those pain meds working out for you?"

"I'm fine," Olivia said, shooting Elliot a look that clearly told him not to argue her current condition.

"Ok, well, we're going to take you down the hall for the tests, so if you'll lean towards me, I'm going to help you scoot over into this wheelchair.

"Sir, if you want to wait here, we'll be right back," he addressed Elliot.

"Thank you," he said, flashing the orderly a grin.

After being gone for a while, the orderly pushed Olivia back into the exam room and helped her out of the wheelchair, while Elliot helped guide her back into her bed.

"Ok, Olivia, the doctor will be in shortly to talk to you about the plan for getting you fixed up and out of here."

"Thanks," she said, shifting slightly in the bed to accommodate her head injury.

"So, how did it go?" he asked, sitting down on the side of her bed, head turned toward her.

"Ok I guess, I'll find out when the doctor comes back. I'm just ready to get out of here."

"I'm sure they'll spring you soon enough. They just have to make sure everything's alright though; head injuries can be tricky," he said tentatively patting her hand, careful of the IV line running into it. He was surprised when she didn't pull her hand away or scowl at his antics, but instead just nodded and allowed her eyes to drift closed again. Elliot gently continued to caress the back of her hand with his thumb, all the while watching her for any signs of discomfort.

After about half an hour, the doctor knocked quietly on her door, waking her up from her dozing, and eased into the room, followed by a nurse.

"Detective Benson. How are you feeling?"

"Alright."

"Well, I've got some good and bad news for you. The good news is that you don't have any brain damage, swelling, or a major concussion. Unfortunately, the nasty gash on your head is going to need stitches. It's a simple procedure really. I'll have you lie on your left side, so I can get direct access to the area. I will have to shave the hair around the cut, but your hair above it should be able to cover the area. I'll give you a local injection to numb the area, stitch it up, and you'll be free to go. If you're ok with that, let's go ahead and get started."

"I don't really have any other choices, do I?"

"Not unless you want it to get infected."

"Fine, let's just get it over with."

The doctor lowered the head of her bed to be flat, while she rolled over onto her side. Elliot came over to the left side of the bed, so that he could be face to face with her, while the doctor and nurse prepared their instruments on the other side. He pulled his chair up close, and took her hand in his.

"It's going to be fine, Liv. Squeeze my hand as hard as you need to if it hurts. I'll be right here."

"I don't want you 'right here'," she said mocking him.

"Liv…,"

"Just…don't….,"

She closed her eyes as she heard the electric razor begin to shave around the area, then felt the coolness of an alcohol pad being swabbed over her skin.

"Alright, Olivia, now we're going to give you the local. On the count of three. One. Two," and the doctor pushed the needle into the flesh over her skull.

"Shit that hurts," Olivia whispered, flinching at the pain.

"I know. It'll be done soon, just try to relax," Elliot whispered back, rubbing his other hand, the one not occupied by Olivia's grip, across her forehead, brushing a few stray hairs out of her face.

The whole procedure only took about 15 minutes, and then Olivia was discharged.

"Do you need anything else?" Elliot asked.

"No. I just want to go home and go to bed. I need some time alone."

"If you need anything, you know my number. Feel free to call, any time, day or night."

"Thanks, but I won't need to."

With that, Elliot simply nodded,closed the door to her room and headed out toward the parking lot.


End file.
